Broken People
by Tajjas
Summary: The Sky People's technology helps to save Tsu'tey after the battle, but he isn't quite sure what to think of the broken Sky Person in the wheeled chair that keeps coming to visit him while he's recovering. Friendship fic, AU for obvious reasons.
1. Who are you?

_The Sky People's technology is enough to save Tsu'tey, but he isn't quite sure what to think of the broken Sky Person in the wheeled chair that keeps coming to visit him while he's recovering. Friendship fic, AU in that Tsu'tey lives._

_No connection to my other Avatar story…there were a couple different scenarios that popped into my head after I saw the movie, and this is another one. AU in that Tsu'tey lives (obviously) because I still think killing him was a waste of a good character. And in case anyone was wondering, I don't own Avatar or any recognizable characters._

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Tsu'tey snarled as the broken Sky Person entered the room he was being kept in and then hid a wince as the action pulled at his throat. This man had been coming to visit him for at least a short time each day since he'd awoken in this Sky Person building…at first Tsu'tey hadn't understood why he was always moving about in a wheeled contraption and never seemed to come to his feet, but a few days ago he'd come to the startling conclusion that the man's legs simply didn't _work_. And although the bandage around the man's head and some kind of pack strapped to his arm seemed to indicate recent injuries, the fact that he didn't even _attempt_ to use his legs made Tsu'tey think that they'd been worthless for some time.

He gave a minute shake of his head. The god of the Sky People was nothing like Eywa, to force someone to live in such a damaged state. In the forest, one had to prove himself every day to live. A person with a flaw of that magnitude would never—_could_ never—survive there. And so Eywa would never allow a child to be born with such a deformity, and an adult who'd been dealt that kind of injury and could not be healed would have the honor to go quietly. He could remember being told a few stories when he was young of those who lost a single limb that had still gone on to achieve feats of valor, but full crippling of half one's body? No. The consequence would be death.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the Sky People weren't aware of that fact, and so the broken Sky Person existed here. And continued to inflict his company on Tsu'tey daily. It was beginning to get irritating. Well, actually the visits had _been_ irritating since Tsu'tey had become conscious enough to notice his presence—he didn't like Sky People much and didn't want to spend any more time around them than he had to—but now that they'd finally taken that tube out of his throat, he was in a much better position to express his displeasure.

He'd survived the fall from the Sky Person ship, but between the Sky People weapons that had struck him and the sheer height he'd fallen from, he'd been injured almost to the point of death. 'Internal injuries,' he'd heard one of the Sky People healers say, that and 'heavily compounded fracture.' The Na'vi healers hadn't said anything, they'd just shaken their heads and whispered prayers to Eywa. In truth, he didn't remember anything between plummeting from the gunship and waking up on this cot, but from what he'd come to understand, a Sky Person had found him with 'instruments' before any of his own people. Apparently too stupid to do anything else, the Sky Person had brought him back to the Sky Person compound where they'd hooked him up to their machines upon his arrival.

If he'd had a choice, he would have allowed only Eywa's healing, even if that had meant his death. And it might have, he was honest enough to admit…he had only a limited understanding of 'internal injuries', but he'd seen images of his leg that showed it as a twisted mass of broken bone and blood held together only by a few bits of skin. Unfortunately, by the time the Na'vi healers had been brought in to see him after the battle, the Sky People's technology had taken hold, and the Na'vi healers had eventually agreed that the Sky People's healing technology was doing as much for him as anything could. And that it would be best if he remained where he was. He could understand their reasoning since at that point the trip to the new Hometree would have been life threatening in and of itself, but if he hadn't been unconscious, he'd have told them to try anyway.

Even after he had passed the danger point, the continuing healing of his abdomen and reconstruction of his leg required continuing use of the Sky People technology, and while he'd tried to argue the point with his Na'vi healers, one of them had told him bluntly that Eywa had enough to do after the battle. Since he _could_ be healed here, it would be best to remain. In fact, he'd heard that a few others, mostly burned children, had been brought in as well. He hadn't seen any of them personally, but one of the healers had said something about the Sky People technology being able to take away pain…even he admitted that, in regards to children, the desire to use that technology was understandable. It was just regrettable that continuing to use the technology for _his_ healing necessitated him remaining here. And even more regrettable, at least from his point of view, it also necessitated him enduring their presence around him.

"Nice to see you too," the broken Sky Person said, apparently not at all put off by Tsu'tey's less-than-pleasant greeting. "Finally got the feeding tube out, I see."

He didn't even attempt to speak Na'vi, apparently assuming that Tsu'tey understood the Sky Person language despite the fact that Tsu'tey had yet to admit that he did at any point during the man's visits, and Tsu'tey spit an insult at his arrogance. And then pretended that that hadn't hurt his throat either.

"I think I'm going to assume that was 'go away.'" The broken Sky Person shrugged. "Which I can, if you'd rather be alone, but I figured you'd want to hear the latest updates from the village."

Tsu'tey's lips creased in a snarl again, although he didn't actually make a sound. He had no idea how this stupid broken creature was as familiar as the doings at the new Hometree as he was—and when Tsu'tey found out which Na'vi was giving the man information, the two of them were going to have harsh words at the very _least_—but aside from the Na'vi healers, he had had almost no Na'vi visitors. And the healers generally insisted on pestering him about his health and telling him to rest and refusing to answer all but the most mundane questions. He had no _choice_ but to pay this…person…at least some attention.

He wasn't totally devoid of contact with other Na'vi, of course; Neytiri had been here half a dozen times, Mo'at twice, his mother several times—of course, she _was_ a healer—but they all had other work to do helping the injured and beginning to build at the new Hometree site and couldn't make overly regular visits to the Sky Person enclave just to bring him news. His warriors as a whole avoided this place, for which he couldn't blame them. But a part of him did wish that Jakesully had come. At least once. They had become…well, they were still not _friends_, he would say, but allies, at least, and Tsu'tey would not have minded his company. But Jakesully was no doubt as busy as the rest of them working on the new Hometree, and Tsu'tey could not fault his priorities. The safety and security of the people came first.

It seemed that the broken Sky Person had taken his half-snarl as assent, further indication that he wasn't particularly intelligent, and began detailing the most recent Na'vi happenings. Most of the clans were returning to their homes, save for those who were too injured to move as yet, Mo'at and Neytiri were organizing things at the site of a potential new Hometree as efficiently as Tsu'tey had expected—most recently selecting a site for the weavers to collaborate—and so forth.

The news was delivered in the same manner that it had been every other time the man had visited, as a stream of words and no apparent concern for the lack of any response, or even any indication of interest, from Tsu'tey.

Tsu'tey _did_ listen, at least with half his attention, since this was the only real conduit he had to the goings on with his people, but he did his best not to show it. He would rather a Na'vi came to tell him such things. _Any_ Na'vi. Perhaps a youngster, one who'd just bonded with an ikran on the path to adulthood, would be willing to act as a runner.

He frowned slightly. Although…well, the information the man brought wasn't just about the current activities of his people. Among other things, the broken Sky Person had given a surprisingly adept analysis of the battle and its aftermath and occasionally mentioned what was happening with the captured Sky Person soldiers who hadn't yet been sent back to their star. Those conversations often referenced things that Tsu'tey didn't understand—anti-tank munitions, cluster mines, persona locks, and such—but the basic analysis was usually sound. And while Tsu'tey hadn't truly wanted to hear the numbers of those lost in battle, as a leader it had been necessary for him to hear it, and the broken Sky Person hadn't flinched from that when he'd concluded his analysis of the fighting. A youngster would not necessarily bring him such information.

For a few short minutes after the discussion, or at least the one-sided information stream delivered by the broken Sky Person, about the battle, Tsu'tey had entertained the notion that the man might be a warrior of some form. Perhaps what Jakesully called a pilot, since they worked seated and might be able to be useful even without functional legs, as ridiculous as that idea still sounded to him. But only one pilot had fought on the side of the Na'vi, and she had been numbered among the casualties, so Tsu'tey had discarded the idea almost immediately. No, the broken Sky Person was a scientist at best—and Tsu'tey disliked scientists as much as he did any other Sky People—and given that he didn't even show the same proficiency with the 'computers' that the Sky Person healers who visited him used, talking was probably his most useful function. A waste of a life.

He hissed quietly at the still-speaking figure. The man paused and gave him a quick glance, apparently to see if Tsu'tey actually planned to say anything, but when Tsu'tey remained silent, he started talking again. Tsu'tey sighed to himself. Perhaps if one of the healers would consent to taking a message back, he _would_ attempt to implement the idea of a runner. If nothing else, having a connection to his people of his own might at least reduce the number of visits the broken Sky Person made. But then again, the healers—both Sky Person _and_ Na'vi—were so intent forcing 'rest' on him that it was entirely possible that they would refuse. Well, if no one else, Neytiri would listen, the next time she was here.

"—nd your ikran is just being irritating."

That statement caught Tsu'tey's full attention, and his eyes flashed to the broken Sky Person's face as he gave up his pretense of not understanding the Sky Person language. "She survived?" He had been worried, but thus far his healers hadn't thought to tell him, and up until this morning the tube in his throat had prevented him from asking.

"I didn't tell you that already?" The Sky Person shook his head, showing no more surprise that Tsu'tey was talking to him than he had when Tsu'tey wasn't. "Sorry, I thought I had. She's fine. One wing got a little cut up, but it looks like it's healing pretty well." He shrugged. "The primary gunship targets were ikrans _with_ riders, so once you were off her back she was much less interesting to them. But now she's taken over a corner of the hanger and is shrieking at everyone who comes in, which is making getting things done in there a little tricky. We've tried locking her out when she goes out hunting, but she keeps breaking back in and bringing dinner with her."

Tsu'tey couldn't hold back a quick smile at that. She had been a difficult one to bond with, even as skilled as he was, but she was as loyal as anyone could wish.

"Since you are awake, do you want anything? Food, or…well, I'll get yelled at if I bring you anything the healers haven't officially okayed, but I think the scary dragonlady healer finally went back to the new Hometree for the night so I can probably manage most reasonable requests." He seemed to find something about that amusing, and Tsu'tey's smile twisted into a disgusted grimace.

"I _wish_ to be left alone." He disliked dealing with Sky People badly enough as it was; he didn't need to be…entertainment…for a broken one.

The broken Sky Person shrugged. "All right, suit yourself. See you tomorrow."

* * *

Tsu'tey held still while the Na'vi healers probed at his abdomen and the Sky People healers waved their 'scanners' over him. It had been several days since the tube had come out of his throat, and despite the damage done by the Sky People's weapons, the wounds inflicted by the man on the gunship were nearly healed now. He was a bit…sore…when he moved about, but it was nothing that he couldn't ignore. And certainly nothing that he needed to _admit_ to the healers.

His leg on the other hand, was still encased in an odd jelly-like substance held on by a clear wrap and an odd metal brace, and he'd been told quite firmly that neither would be coming off for several more weeks. Nor would he be permitted to put any great amount of weight on it for some time after that. But if his abdomen was healed, he would at least be able to get about by means of a crutch, and getting around meant being able to go outside. Even if he wasn't permitted to go to the new Hometree yet, it would at least get him out where the air smelled _normal_.

Unfortunately, the healers left without giving him any definitive verdict, and he found himself glaring up at the ceiling. Apparently 'more rest' was a standard prescription in all healer cultures no matter where they were from.

"Left you with 'hmm, we'll have to wait and see'?" the broken Sky Person asked, wheeling himself in. "Docs—healers—like doing that."

"Who _are_ you?" Tsu'tey demanded with a snarl, shoving himself into a sitting position to face the man and biting back a wince at the unpleasant tug in the vicinity of his stomach. Ignoring this idiot didn't work, he seemed to find being insulted—and Tsu'tey had done a great deal of that since the tube had come out—amusing…the one thing Tsu'tey _hadn't_ done yet was strike him. And he wasn't such a coward that he could justify striking a broken person without some form of immediate provocation, no matter how irritating his presence was. But short of an attempt at physical violence, no matter what Tsu'tey did, he just kept _coming_. "Don't you have _anything _better to do than annoy me?"

The broken Sky Person stared at him for a long moment and then, unexpectedly, broke into laughter. Tsu'tey's hands clenched, and he gauged the distance to the Sky Person carefully. This _was_ provocation, and being injured didn't mean that he was going to put up with being ridicu—

"Sorry." The broken Sky Person held up his hands after a minute, obviously biting back further laughter. "Sorry. I'm laughing at me, not you, I swear. I just—it didn't even occur to me to introduce myself." He ignored Tsu'tey's obvious anger and rolled himself over to the edge of the bed, offering a hand in the Sky People's method of greeting. "Jake Sully. Nice to meet you."


	2. Why that body?

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. I think in total this will end up having 4-5 chapters, although that's always subject to change.  
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_To avoid having a bunch of translations at the end of chapters, I'm using //speech// to indicate when characters are speaking Na'vi._

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_Tsu'tey stared. Blinked. Stared some more, searching for some sign of deception in the man's tone, some trace of attempted humor, _something_. He didn't see anything, but there was no way that this obviously damaged creature—one who wouldn't last even a _day_ outside this facility—could possibly be Toruk Makto. There just wasn't. His tail twitched.

"Uh, Tsu'tey?" The broken Sky Person lowered his hand after a minute, frowning. "Are you okay?"

With a hiss, he twisted and leaned down to put his face close to the broken Sky Person's. It required putting his chest nearly on level with the cot to do so since the man's head didn't reach very much higher than that, seated as he was, and the position caused Tsu'tey's abdomen to ache fiercely, but he had far more important things to worry about. He had never really _looked_ at his annoying visitor before—he hadn't really looked at any of the Sky People, at least not any more than he'd had to. _Was_ it possible?

His instincts still said that no, it wasn't. It just…_wasn't_. But the broken Sky Person met the challenge in his eyes steadily, making no attempt to pull away. And while the man's coloring was obviously wrong, more like pale mud than flesh, his features had some…likeness…to those of the Jakesully Tsu'tey knew. Oh, there were definite differences: the nose was too narrow, the eyes were the wrong color, the ears were absurdly small and rounded, and there seemed to be hair starting to grow on the lower half of his _face_, but in general….

"It really is me," the man said, after several more minutes had passed in silence. "I swear."

Tsu'tey gave a grunt that was more than half snarl and shifted to sit upright again. Or tried, anyway. The abrupt straightening caused the ache in his abdomen to become spikes of agonizing pain, and the feeling sent him doubling forward with a gasp.

"Hey, hey, easy!" Undersized hands with too many fingers—a trait Sky People seemed to share with the Dreamwalker bodies, he'd noticed—braced against his shoulders, preventing him from falling any further forward. "Take it easy; it wasn't that long ago that you had a bunch of bullets in you." He paused. "Do you want me to get a doctor?"

Doctor being another Sky Person word for healer, and Tsu'tey gritted his teeth. "_No_." He shook off the hands and used his arms to push himself upright again. This time considerably more slowly, but even so, it took a few deep breaths to force the pain down to a manageable level and a minute longer to fully compose himself. When the pain was finally under control, he couldn't help but feel a sense of shame at his weakness. He was a warrior, not a helpless child to cry out at a little hurt. Anger that his weakness that had been seen—and by a Sky Person, no less—followed immediately, and he snarled, fists clenching. "You're _broken._" //_Useless_.//

"Yeah, well, hate to break it to you, but you ain't looking so good yourself."

Tsu'tey's lips creased in another snarl, but that immediate, sharp rejoinder and the accompanying glare did as much to convince him of Jakesully's identity as his appearance did. Especially since he showed absolutely no sign of being intimidated, despite the fact that with this small distance separating them, Tsu'tey could easily inflict serious damage regardless of his injuries. But even when he'd been newly arrived at Hometree and as blind and as useless as any other Dreamwalker, Jakesully had never backed down from him. Tsu'tey had no trouble believing that he would show the same…courage…in his Sky Person form. However badly it was broken.

He still didn't appreciate having his weakness witnessed, though, and the two of them were left glaring at each other in silence for several minutes. Then maybe-Jakesully's expression relaxed slightly, and he shook his head. "Look, it's getting late, and this is stupid. Are you hungry? I know the docs don't usually let people eat for a few hours beforehand when they're planning to scan them, so you probably missed lunch."

Tsu'tey stared for a moment longer before dipping his head slightly. What the Sky People called 'lunch' wasn't standard among the Na'vi—if they were hungry midday, they ate, if not, they didn't—but he usually did get hungry, and he had been made to miss that meal today.

"Can I join you? I haven't eaten either. And if you want to play twenty questions so you can decide if I am who I say I am, I guess we can do that too."

His immediate reaction was a negative. He didn't _like_ Sky People. But then again, there was the…possibility…that this was not an ordinary Sky Person. Or at least he might not be one when he was in a proper body. And it would be good to have the opportunity to ask him some number of questions to make him prove himself one way or the other. Tsu'tey found himself nodding again.

"Good." He smiled, and Tsu'tey suddenly saw an echo of a familiar face in that as well. "Back in a minute, then."

He swiveled his chair around and wheeled himself out of the room, and Tsu'tey stared after him. He would stand by his previous conclusion. The damage to the man's—_Jakesully's?_—legs had not been a recent event. The idea that someone who by all rights should be _dead_ could have managed to learn even the simplest of the ways of the Na'vi, never mind do any of the other things Jakesully had done, still seemed absolutely ridiculous, and yet…. He shook his head and was still trying to wrap his mind around the possibility when the man returned with two trays balanced on his lap.

He handed the first tray up to Tsu'tey and then rolled himself backwards enough that he wasn't having to tilt his head ridiculously far upwards to meet Tsu'tey's eyes, taking a few bites of his own meal before speaking again. "So, where do you want to start? Or is there anything you want to know about what's been happening at the new Hometree lately that I haven't covered, first? You haven't exactly been in a talkative mood when I've stopped by."

"If you'd given me your _name_, perhaps I would have been." Assuming of course that that _was_ his name, but…. Tsu'tey studied him again. Difficulty reconciling actions with apparent abilities aside, he found himself almost convinced.

"Yeah, well, I sort of forgot that you've never seen me like this. I mean, _I_ know what I look like." He shrugged, taking another bite. "I really didn't mean to do that to you, so sorry. Although, you know, you could have asked a little sooner."

Tsu'tey sneered. He was not in the habit of conversing with Sky People any more than he had to.

Probably-Jakesully snorted. "Yeah, this is going to be fun."

* * *

"Why are you in that body?" Tsu'tey demanded, as soon as the door opened. The Sky Person healers had already come and gone earlier, and there had been no Na'vi, healers or otherwise, who had come to the Sky People's place today, which meant that this should be Jakesully.

He had accepted last night the fact that the broken Sky Person really _was _Jakesully; his features and attitude matched too well for it to be otherwise. And he did know a great deal about proper Na'vi behavior. His command of the _language_ was poor, but then, that was true of the Dreamwalker Jakesully as well.

But though Tsu'tey had considered the matter carefully after Jakesully had left, he still did not see how the man could function, damaged as he was. Could actually remain in that body thinking himself of any use like that. While he'd taken a closer look at the Sky People healers earlier and was fairly certain that two of them were actually Dreamwalkers themselves, albeit not ones he'd spoken to directly, they had fully functional bodies. As bizarre as those bodies looked; he could understand why they chose to use them here. Jakesully, however…. It would make much more sense for him to _leave _the useless body and use the one that worked.

"Hello, nice too see you too," Jakesully greeted, wheeling himself in. "How are you feeling today?" He ignored Tsu'tey's hiss of annoyance at his question being ignored as he rolled over to hand him a tray of food and then rolled back a little to start on his own meal. "They decided it's more efficient if I just bring food with me when I come, now that you're actually acknowledging my existence. Scientists are kind of big on efficiency."

"Why are you in that body?" Tsu'tey repeated. "Is your Dreamwalker body damaged?" Because that was the one viable explanation that he had been able to come up with, and if it was as damaged as this Sky Person one was…. He found himself staring again and forced himself to redirect his attention to his food.

"My Avatar, what you call my Dreamwalker body, is just fine. It's actually at the new Hometree, although not that many people know that. It was easier to take it there than bring it back here. But you have to be in a pod to control the Avatars, and the pods in the mobile base that Grace, Norm, and I had been using were all damaged in the fight." He shook his head. "Electrical system cascade…something."

Tsu'tey frowned. Like many of those his age among the Omaticaya, he had attended Grace's school as a child. And he had done quite well; in truth, he was probably the most skilled English speaker in the clan. At least when he chose to use that skill. But Grace had never really explained much about Sky People technology, nor had anyone cared enough to ask.

"I don't understand exactly what happened," Jakesully continued. "One of the tech types tried to explain it, but all I really got was that something blew up or shorted out or whatever when the colonel smashed in the window and depressurized the lab, that triggered another problem, and at some point after Neytiri and I got out of there the power units on the pods went boom. And took a few other components with them. There are other pods here, but the colonel did some serious damage to them before the attack, probably to keep the other scientists from using their Avatars to try and interfere." He shrugged. "They'll get fixed eventually, I'm sure, but right now there are already too few people to do everything that needs doing to worry about something that low-priority. And Mo'at's idea to jam me into my Avatar permanently is going to have to wait until everyone who needs healing has been healed and things at the new Hometree are functioning a little more smoothly. So, for now, this is what you get."

"And you go often to Hometree like this?" That did not make him feel particularly secure about the new Hometree site, if someone who couldn't even walk could easily maneuver around it. But perhaps he simply remained in one place after arrival; that would be acceptable enough.

"I've never been to the new Hometree."

"_Never? _Why not?" As much as he didn't want it to be _too_ accessible, it was bad enough that the clan leader couldn't be there to see it being set up. He'd thought that at least Toruk Makto would have spent some time reassuring the people. Even looking so pathetic.

Jakesully rolled his eyes. "Well, mostly because I'm stuck here same as you are. My ikran won't come anywhere near me like this—which, since I've already got yours eying me like I'd make a particularly tasty snack every time I go into the hanger, is probably just as well; I'd kind of hate to get eaten by him by accident—but it makes travel kind of difficult."

"Neytiri would take you." The others, probably not—almost certainly not in his broken Sky Person body—but Tsu'tey had no doubts that she would. Something in him said that that fact should hurt him far more than it did, but…well, he would think on that later, when he was alone. It wasn't as though he had very much _else_ to do besides think right now. He paused for a moment, considering. "She does know who—what—you…?"

"She's seen me like this, yeah. She's the one that got me out of the lab and back here after it was breached. Pandora's not exactly what you'd call wheelchair-friendly. But Seze was killed in the fighting, so when she visits she has to fly in with Mo'at or one of the healers, and they aren't so sure about me."

Tsu'tey closed his eyes. He could still remember how excited Neytiri had been when she'd first bonded with her ikran, how many hours the two of them still spent just flying together…she would be taking Seze's death hard. She could—and no doubt would, eventually—bond with another, but he could see her taking some time to come to terms with that.

"I thought about trying to take a shuttle out there," Jakesully continued after a minute, "but we're short pilots on our side, and I've never flown one on my own. Trying with instruments that are unreliable at best is just asking to get myself killed. And while I _am_ a good AMP operator, it's far enough away that without a transport, even at full speed it'd take me a couple filters to get there and back." He grimaced. "Right now the docs aren't even letting me use up _one_. Besides which, shuttle or AMP, I'm pretty damn sure I'd end up with arrows in me long before I got there. And that's assuming I didn't manage to get trampled or eaten or whatever on the way, which I wouldn't bet on."

After a moment of thought, Tsu'tey had to agree with his assessment. Any Sky Person approaching a Na'vi settlement would be viewed with suspicion at the very least; any Sky Person approaching in Sky Person _machinery_ would face outright hostility if not an immediate attack. He could understand that. He would help them, if he was there. He frowned. "But, then how do you know so much about what has been happening?" It had been _recent_ events that Jakesully had been telling him of, of that he was sure. Had the healers been giving him more information than they had Tsu'tey? In that case, why hadn't they just told him themselves? And what about the days that the healers didn't come?

"Oh, we got a radio hooked up. There's quite a bit of interference—too much for a vidlink, even using the big antenna that runs out of the communications center—but it's not as bad as it was at the old Hometree, and we haven't had too many problems getting voice messages through."

"Radio?" He hadn't understood several of the words that Jakesully had just used, but he was fairly certain that that was the important one.

"It's sort of like a larger version of the comms we were using in the fight. It's…transmission works best from the main station, but when you're in good enough shape for a walk, I'll take you up and show you how it works."

"And I can send messages to those at Hometree with it? To anyone I want?"

"Yeah, sure. Or you can talk directly to people, if you'd rather do that. It's not quite the same as being face to face, but it works well enough." He paused for a moment. "Well, it works well enough assuming they'll get near the radio, anyway; according to Neytiri, there are quite a few that won't. Mostly I've been relaying everything through her, so if you've got anything specific you want to say to anyone, I can take a message and pass it along. Or you can wait and tell them yourself whenever you're ready for it." He paused again. "Seriously, how _are_ you feeling? You looked pretty rough last night."

He grimaced. "Apparently something inside of me is not so healed as they thought. It won't require another…surgery?...but I am supposed to rest. More." He snorted. "Of course, they neglected to mention how I should do that as I haven't _done_ anything since I arrived here."

Jakesully grinned. "Yeah, the word is 'surgery,' and that's doctors—healers—for you. They tell you to keep doing something you're already doing like it's some great revelation, and then they get annoyed at you when you tell them you're already doing it. Which I guess is better than then them reciting the never-ending list of things you _can't_ do, but still." He shook his head. "And they wonder why I hate dealing with them so much."

Tsu'tey echoed the motion. Jakesully's description was accurate, especially since he expected to hear the same refrain from the Na'vi healers the next time they were here.

* * *

Tsu'tey thumped his tail against the cot, staring idly at the door. He wasn't accustomed to the methods that the Sky People used to tell time, and he couldn't see the sky from here, but right now, his stomach was telling him that Jakesully was late. Which, since he'd had mentioned yesterday that the Sky People soldiers had done something difficult to the mines, or at least something that would make the mines difficult to clean, perhaps should haven't come as a surprise. Tsu'tey hadn't understood a great deal and hadn't had any real desire to since he just wanted those holes in the land filled, but it had sounded like Jakesully planned to spend some time on it for the next several days to come. What he could possibly _do_ that would be of any use, Tsu'tey didn't know, but that could easily be where he was.

But Tsu'tey's healers had _finally_ approved him to get up and walk about earlier today. Well, provided that he didn't attempt to go far. And that even if he wasn't going far, he made sure not to stress himself. And that he used a crutch at all times. And that he did not attempt to put any amount of weight on his leg. And that he would immediately contact someone if he felt any pain at all in his abdomen. And that…. He shook his head. He wasn't sure what had come after that, in truth, since that had been when he'd stopped listening, but there had been an absurd number of conditions placed upon him. A never ending list of things he couldn't do, indeed.

Still, they _had_ given him permission—and an appropriately sized crutch—which meant that tonight he could go to this radio and speak to his warriors directly. He had passed a few messages in the three days since he'd accepted who Jakesully was, but there were some things that simply couldn't be conveyed by relay, especially when the one doing the relay wasn't particularly fluent in Na'vi.

Perhaps, after speaking to the warriors, they could then go see his ikran. The healers had refused to give him directions, probably in an attempt to keep him from doing anything foolish, as though he was a child that needed to be cared for rather than an adult who was perfectly capable of making his own decisions, but he was reasonably certain that Jakesully would be willing to show him the way.

His tail twitched against the cot again. But that assumed that Jakesully actually _came_. He knew that the Sky People had ways to contact each other within the buildings, but he didn't know what those ways were, which made this especially frustrating. And while there was always the device that would summon a healer—they'd made _very_ sure that he knew how to use that—who might be able to give him information, he didn't feel like dealing with one of them right now.

Finally, after some amount of time, the door swung open. He was reaching for the crutch when a man he didn't immediately recognize stepped in.

//I See y—// the man began.

//Where is Jakesully?// Tsu'tey interrupted.

//I….//

Tsu'tey studied him for a moment, not bothering to hide his irritation. He had become more accustomed to identifying a Sky Person's features and how those features translated to a Dreamwalker body in the past few days, and he recognized this man as another Dreamwalker easily enough. The one who had fought alongside Horse Clan…Norn, or something like that. But he didn't have any particular interest in speaking with him, especially tonight. //Where is Jakesully?// he repeated.

The man shifted awkwardly. //Jake, uh…Jake had a little run-in with a Titanothere this morning.// He held up the tray in his arms. //Food?//


	3. Broken

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Apparently this is going to end up being a little longer than I planned…not sure quite how long since I didn't do an outline before I started it (since this was supposed to be _short_), but I figure there are at least a couple conversations Jake and Tsu'tey should probably have before they can actually be friends, and I had a couple activities to throw in as well._

_There is a little bad language in this chapter; Jake isn't the most polite person in the world when he's hurt._

_/speech/ = Na'vi  
_

_

* * *

_Tsu'tey hissed. Sky People had no sense. First this one tells him that the tolerable one, who was also Tsu'tey's most reliable link to his clan, at the moment, had been injured by a Titanothere, and then, rather than giving details, he asks if Tsu'tey wants _food?_

/_Explain,_/ he ordered sharply. A Titanothere could easily kill an adult Na'vi—if he was stupidly unobservant, anyway—and the Sky People were barely bigger than half-grown children. And it wasn't as though Jakesully could get out of its way…what in Eywa's name would a man who couldn't even use his legs be doing anywhere near a Titanothere anyway?

/It's…don't worry, he'll be fine. He went out scouting and ran into a young male split off from its herd. Fortunately, it just sent him flying rather than stomping him, but Jake was still knocked around some, and then he got another dose of hydrogen sulfide poisoning on top of that. Between the two, he was kind of loopy when he finally made it back to base—loopy enough to need help, and Jake does _not_ like asking for help—so the healers are saying that he's not supposed to leave his room until tomorrow at the earliest./ He shrugged slightly. /I think they'd rather have kept him in medical, but he was being really uncooperative./

/Scouting for _what_? He's useless in that body./ It would make more sense for him to stay indoors and out of trouble.

/Jake's not useless,/ the man responded instantly, looking surprisingly offended.

Tsu'tey stared. Had this idiot not _noticed_ that Jakesully's legs were nonfunctional? So far the only redeeming quality he seemed to possess was that he spoke acceptable Na'vi.

/Maybe he's not running any footraces,/ the man continued, /but he does just fine. And it's not like any of the rest of us have any experience with mines./

Tsu'tey saw no reason why it would take any experience whatsoever to deal with a giant hole, but he had no wish to prolong this conversation any further so he settled for a sneer. /I wish to see him./

/I don't think he's in the mood for company./

/I wish to see him./ Tsu'tey repeated, putting the snap of command into his voice. It wasn't as though he had particularly wanted company the majority of the times that Jakesully had come to visit _him_, after all.

The man stared for a minute and then shrugged. /Well, I guess we can ask. Just drop that 'useless' crap; I think he already got enough of that today./ He started to turn back towards the door and then paused. /Um, do you want…?/ He held up the tray again.

Tsu'tey took it and set it behind him on the cot. He could eat later.

The Sky People's building was…awkward…at best, for a Na'vi to travel through, which was why Tsu'tey hadn't spent more than a few minutes exploring on his own after the healers had given him the crutch. If he'd been uninjured, it would have been easier; he could have moved about in a full crouch as though he were scouting. That was probably what the healers were doing when they visited. Unfortunately, with the need to keep his injured leg as straight as possible, he ended up having to walk with his back and shoulders severely hunched just to keep from hitting his head on the ceiling. It was an awkward and somewhat painful posture to hold for any length of time. He could see rooms off to the sides where, like the room he was currently staying in, the ceilings were considerably higher, but in the corridors it was not so. /This is ridiculous./

He'd meant the comment to be private, but the Sky Person walking—easily—beside him answered anyway. /It's because of the air…./ He paused, and then switched languages. "Because of the air reclamation systems. Sorry, I don't know 'reclamation' in Na'vi." A shrug. /The filters and stuff that let us breathe here are built between levels, mostly over the corridors./

How they breathed wasn't of any particular interest to Tsu'tey—he might be able to tolerate the air in here, but that didn't mean that he _liked_ it—but he grunted in acknowledgment.

They turned down yet another corridor with an absurdly low ceiling, this one lined with gray doors, and the man paused in front of the second one and then knocked his hand against it lightly. "Jake? It's Norm. You awake?"

"No. Go away."

"Well, at least he didn't throw anything," the man—Norm, not Norn, apparently—muttered before raising his voice again. "Tsu'tey's up and around. He wanted to see you."

There was a pause, and then, still less than happily, "Fine."

Norm pushed the door open and stepped inside, followed by Tsu'tey. "Hey," Norm greeted. "You feeling any better?"

Jakesully gave him a dark look. "I feel like I bashed my head against a couple metal posts and then had the docs bitching at me about it for two hours straight. Oh, wait, that's right. That pretty much describes my afternoon." He grimaced and then pushed himself into a sitting position on the cot that he'd been lying on.

"Uh, are you supposed to be moving around?"

Another glare was directed at Norm, and then with a wince Jakesully pulled himself around until his back rested against the wall. "What the docs don't know won't hurt them." He glanced over Norm's shoulder at Tsu'tey and then a flicker of something that might have been amusement crossed his face. "Not that I really wouldn't prefer that the two of you went somewhere else, seeing as how you're disturbing the marching band in my skull, but if you're planning to stick around, you better have a seat before you hurt yourself."

Tsu'tey wasn't entirely sure what a marching band was supposed to be, but the room _was_ ridiculously small—small enough that the discomfort that he felt wasn't just from having to keep his upper body hunched—and after a minute he folded himself down into a sitting position onto the unoccupied cot, keeping his injured leg outstretched.

"I actually can't stay," Norm said. "I'm supposed to take over radio watch from Max in about ten minutes." He turned to Tsu'tey. /Will you be able to find your way back on your own?/

/I will be fine./ Probably. The Sky People hadn't been particularly creative about decorating the endlessly-similar walls of their building, which might make navigation somewhat difficult, but they hadn't taken _that_ many turns to get here.

/Goodnight, then./ Norm grinned as he turned back to Jakesully. "Night, Jake. Don't fall out of bed and break an arm on top of everything else, all right? The docs would just love that."

"You're hilarious. Really. Just remember that I know where you sleep."

Norm rolled his eyes and left the room.

Jakesully rubbed his forehead as he returned his attention to Tsu'tey. "Well, at least one of us is getting better, I guess. How's your leg?"

"Fine. What happened? Why would you bother a Titanothere? Especially in that body." There were oddly colored marks on his face and arms, and a pack was once again strapped to his upper arm, but there were no other obvious injuries. Or, at least, no new obvious injuries. Which was better than Tsu'tey had expected, really.

"Well, for one this is the body I've got right now, and for another he started it, but it was mostly stupidity on my part." The disgust in his voice was obvious. "Well, stupidity all around, I guess, but on my part especially." He sighed and rubbed his forehead again before dropping his hand back into his lap. "You know that the colonel set up a kill zone on the approach to the base, right?"

'Kill zone' was an appropriate name for what the man had done—Tsu'tey had seen the carcasses of the animals killed when they crossed that invisible threshold lying in the sun rotting without even an attempt made to gather their meat—and he grimaced.

"We've got the weapon controls here, so at least they aren't going to start blasting anything without someone's okay, but it turns out that at some point he went and mined the whole area too. Couple hundred of the damn things, minimum. Maybe more, it's hard to say." He shook his head and then winced, leaning it back against the wall again. "Personally, if _I_ was going to mine that big an area, I'd go for discouragement rather than destruction, but then again, I'm sane."

Tsu'tey shook his head. "There are not hundreds of mines." As much as he hated seeing the deep holes in the land, even he would not claim that the Sky People had made that many of them.

Jakesully frowned. "Yes, there are."

"There are _not_. Mines are large, and my eyes are good." Just because he didn't like the Sky People didn't mean that he and his warriors hadn't kept a careful eye on them.

"Mines are…?" He frowned slightly. "Wait, you're talking about the Unobtainium-gathering mines, aren't you?"

"The holes, yes. That is a mine." He was quite certain of that fact.

"That's one kind of mine," Jakesully agreed. "And knowing Grace, it's probably the only kind that ever came up in English class. Hell, it's probably the only kind she ever thought of. Unfortunately, the kind of mine _I'm_ talking about is a weapon. They're…oh, say about this big around, on average," he held up his hands, sketching out a roughly circular shape in the air, "although the kind the colonel used are a little larger than the most of the ones I saw back on Earth. They go down in the dirt, hidden, and when someone or something steps on one and triggers it, it explodes. The kill zone varies depending on type, but it's usually safe to assume that whoever stepped on it is toast—dead—and there's going to be some collateral damage to anyone close." He frowned again. "Well, actually I doubt even the most souped-up mines out there could kill a Titanothere or a Thantor, but anything, say, direhorse size or smaller, probably wouldn't survive."

Which included any Na'vi. Tsu'tey felt his jaw clench. "Hundreds of these?"

"Two or three hundred, at least. I figure he set them up in case there was a counterattack here while they were going after Hometree. But the damn things are corroding—either because of the atmosphere or because they're just cheap, I don't know—and that is _not_ a good thing. It means you don't even have to step on one to set it off, just shaking the ground around it will do it. Maybe a dozen of the ones down by the river went off early yesterday morning, which is how we found out they were there in the first place." He shrugged slightly. "Talia, an animal behavior specialist, thinks it was a viperwolf pack local to the area that started them off, and then they were daisy-chained upstream from there, but considering that there's nothing left to examine, it's hard to say."

"Day-see-chain?" His understanding of the Sky People language was good, but he was beginning to think that he should have put some focus on their military terms.

"Daisy-chain…it means several mines on the same trigger. Or possibly one just caused enough of a disturbance to trigger another which triggered a third and so on. That kind of thing is easy to do when the triggers get corroded." He looked away. "If even half of the rest are in the same shape, we're going to have to torch that whole area just to get rid of them."

"_No_." Bad enough that there had been destruction of most of the trees and much of the other plant life on the approach to the base; he would not see it burned clear.

"Yeah, well, I don't like it either, but we might not have a choice. You can lay mines relatively quickly with the right kind of machine, but picking them back up once they're armed is a pain in the ass. And if they're corroded enough to go off at proximity, it'll be too damned dangerous to even try."

Tsu'tey hissed. Hadn't the Sky People done enough damage to the planet?

"I went out today to try and sort out if we could at least get some of them up or if it was a total lost cause," Jakesully continued. "Was on the opposite side of the field from the river—I figured that's where the most stable mines were likely to be—doing some scans on the first mine I found, and the next thing I know I'm airborne. Titanothere came out of nowhere and sent me flying."

/Blind moron./ Titanotheres were easy to see if one was paying attention.

However poor his spoken Na'vi was, Tsu'tey knew that both of those words were in Jakesully's vocabulary, but he just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, thanks. I sort of didn't figure there'd be anything in the area since the colonel had been keeping the kill zone clear, but obviously I was wrong."

/Moron,/ he repeated. Never assume.

"You said that already."

"Why not send one of the others? One who's not broken." One who might have been able to get out of the way once the Titanothere appeared.

Jakesully's expression went hard. "Drop the 'broken' shit, I manage just fine. Someone needed to check the mines, and since I'm the only one here who's ever dealt with them before—or at least the only one on our side who has—I was the best candidate."

"But your legs _don't work_." Did no one here recognize that? It seemed obvious enough to him.

"Congratulations, you really do have good eyes." There was definite anger in his tone. "Like I said, I _manage_. AMPs can be set to run entirely from the hand controls, and there's not a damn thing wrong with my arms or my brain."

Tsu'tey privately doubted that, given that he'd missed a Titanothere approaching, but Jakesully continued speaking before he could say anything.

"_Anyway_, I'm pretty sure after the Titanothere sent me flying it kicked the mine—at least I'm hoping it wasn't just the stomping around that set the damn thing off—and the explosion scared it away. Unfortunately, when the AMP hit the ground I bounced around in the harness some." He indicated the marks on his face and arms. "And the shield got cracked too, although I'm not sure if that was the Titanothere's fault or if it was shrapnel from the mine. I got my emergency mask on as soon as I realized containment had been breached, but not before I got a whiff of the air." He shrugged. "Multiple episodes of hydrogen sulfide poisoning in a short period of time is the kind of thing that upsets docs even without a rattled skull, so they're fussing at me to stay inside for awhile."

"You don't plan to?"

"I've had enough doctors dictating to me what I can't do for one lifetime." The anger hadn't faded from his voice, and he gave Tsu'tey a disgusted look. "One of them kept pointing out that I'm 'broken' too…if I listened to that kind of crap, I'd probably spend the rest of my life sitting in a corner knitting or something." He shook his head and then winced, raising a hand to his forehead again. "I'll give myself a couple days to heal up—I'm not stupid—but I'm not going sit around waiting for that whole field to go up on fire on its own, either. Not without at least _trying_ to do something about it. I'll be more careful next time."

Tsu'tey snorted. "You'll still be blind." And broken. He stared for a minute, considering. "How did you get…damaged?"

That got another glare, although this time there seemed to be some amusement as well as anger behind it. "You know, 'damaged' isn't really a whole hell of a lot better than 'broken.' The word is 'paralyzed.' Which, for the record, isn't all that great either, but at least it's better than the other two."

"That, then." Although 'broken' seemed accurate enough to him.

Jakesully stared at him for a long minute and then shrugged. "I got shot. I'd say it's not a lot of fun, but you've probably figured that out for yourself."

Tsu'tey snorted in acknowledgment. There was still some slight pain in his abdomen when he moved too quickly. "It happened here?" It seemed unlikely that he would willingly join the Na'vi if one of them had done that to him, but….

"What? No. It happened in a place called Venezuela, back on Earth." He went silent for a minute, and then, "My squad was assigned to take out a munitions depot in hostile territory. The area was pretty hot, we knew that going in, but it wasn't the worst situation we'd ever been sent into. Drop went fine, but then we couldn't have gone more than a hundred yards from the LZ before everything went to hell. I don't know if anyone ever decided whether someone tipped them off about us going in, or if they managed to track the energy signature of the bird—the stealth systems are good, but nothing's perfect—but we ended up walking right into an ambush. One second I'm on point and we're advancing, and then the next thing I know bullets are going everywhere, I'm on the ground, and no matter what I do I can't get back up. One of the guys told me afterward that a sniper on the ridge got me, but I don't even remember being hit."

"You got out," Tsu'tey pointed out. He hadn't understood all the terminology, but he understood the gist of the situation well enough, and it was not one in which he would expect many survivors.

"Yeah, well, fortunately it wasn't a very _good_ ambush. Which, considering that the guys we were up against weren't exactly amateurs probably does mean it was something they threw together quickly rather than an operation planned in advance. They set it up too close to the LZ—uh, that's landing zone, by the way—and launched it too soon after we dropped, especially since they didn't seem to have any anti-air capability with them…once we knew that they knew we were there, the choppers dropped stealth and started shooting. Bought us enough time to fall back for evac. Or be dragged back in my case." He looked away. "Those of us that were still alive, anyway. It might not have been a good ambush, but in terms of body count it didn't go so badly for them either. Anyway, when I woke up in the hospital I found out that the shot that took me down blasted a hole right through my spinal cord—which I kind of need to use my lower body—so…well, here I sit."

Tsu'tey cocked his head slightly. "You had been in many battles, then. Before here." He'd rather suspected something of the sort when they had been talking about battle strategies to the other clans, but this was the first time that he had a chance to confirm it.

That got a half-grin, dispersing the dark look that had crossed his face when he'd mentioned the dead. "Quite a few, yeah. I joined the marines right out of school. Although the battle here definitely takes points for being the _oddest_."

"What do you mean?"

"If you'd told me a couple years ago that anyone could take out mecha and shuttles with bows and arrows and help from the local wildlife, I'd have called you crazy. Ten feet tall or not, that's pretty damn impressive."

Tsu'tey smirked. "Sky people are rather small and poorly built."

"I'd just like to point out that I have plenty of things to throw and _excellent_ aim."

He considered for a moment. "I believe the other Dreamwalker, Norm, expected you to throw something when we were at your door. Do you do that often?"

Jakesully rolled his eyes. "I might have pitched a glass at that idiot doc when he tried to force me to stay in medical earlier. But I missed—intentionally—and anyway I'd already told him twice that I knew damn well what limits my 'condition' placed on me, so he pretty much had it coming when he brought it up yet again."

Tsu'tey had to admit that he'd had similar temptations when the Na'vi healers refused to let a subject drop, although it did remind him of his first thought when he'd realized that Jakesully's legs didn't work. "Why _did_ you choose to live like that?"

"Well, I'd prefer not to be paralyzed, but getting my spine fixed wasn't an option, so…." He trailed off with a frown. "Wait, you're asking why I didn't off—kill—myself, aren't you? Is that _normal _around here?"

"I would not say 'normal,' but then that is not a normal injury."

"Jeez, I'm glad I didn't get paralyzed here, then." He shrugged slightly. "I guess I can't say the idea _never_ crossed my mind, especially during those first couple weeks. I mean, this isn't exactly how I planned to live my life. But if the bad guys didn't manage to get rid of me, I'm sure as hell not going to just give up and do the job for them. Sure, there are things I'd like to be able to do that I can't, but..."

"Is that why you decided to come here, then? To have a body that fully works again?" He supposed that that made some sort of sense.

Jakesully gave a slight shake of his head, going silent for a minute, but he then answered in the affirmative. "Yeah, sure. Something like that, anyway. Look, it really does feel like there's a drummer settling in in my skull, so I'd probably better get some rest. I can call Norm and get him to send someone to show you where the radio is, if you want."

Tsu'tey frowned. Jakesully had seemed fine a moment before, speaking about how he'd been injured, but now his face was blank and he clearly didn't want to continue the conversation. It seemed rather odd. But then again, it wasn't as though _Tsu'tey_ knew anything about Sky Person head injuries, and he did wish to speak to someone at Hometree, so he nodded. "Yes."

* * *

Tsu'tey checked the corridor carefully. He was _fairly_ certain that this was the correct location, but the Sky People were absurdly uncreative when it came to decoration, and during the multiple trips he'd made last night—his room to Jakesully's, Jakesully's to the radio, and the radio back to his own room—he'd become somewhat disoriented with regards to what was where.

But there was a line of gray doors in front of him, and…. He stepped to the second and raised his hand to knock lightly, only to pause as he heard Neytiri's voice. Which confirmed that he was in the right place; she came to visit on occasion when the healers did, and it made sense that she would speak to Jakesully while she was here. He was not certain that he wished to deal with the two of them together just yet, though. It had been one thing when he'd had battle plans to occupy his thoughts, but now…now was a different time.

The door flew open abruptly, before he could make a decision, and his option of turning and leaving without making his presence known was suddenly gone.


	4. Sorrow and anger

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. For those who asked if this is (or could be) Jake x Tsu'tey, this is intended as just a friendship fic. I'm not much for writing romances of any kind. However, feel free to read in whatever subtext you'd like._

_//speech//=Na'vi  
_

* * *

Neytiri slammed the door behind her with a bang and snarled up at Tsu'tey before shoving past him with enough force that it nearly sent him to the floor. He was too startled to respond, and as he resettled his crutch under his arm, he found himself wondering what he might have done to offend her so. The last time they'd spoken, she'd left on pleasant enough terms. He stared after her for several minutes, unable to come up with any likely explanations, and then shook himself and tapped lightly on the door. "Hello? Jakesully?"

"Tsu'tey? Come on in."

His smile of greeting as Tsu'tey stepped inside seemed real enough, but although Tsu'tey wasn't particularly well-versed in Sky Person facial expressions, he looked oddly tired. Tsu'tey wondered if he'd been damaged more severely in the encounter with the Titanothere than he'd indicated.

He was sitting on the same cot he'd been on last night, a small machine resting on his lap, but he set it aside almost immediately at Tsu'tey's entrance and gestured at the spare cot. "You know, you're going to end up with one hell of a crick in your neck wandering around in here."

Tsu'tey hissed at him and took a seat. He—and the muscles in his neck and back—were already well aware of that fact.

"And it's just Jake, by the way. Meant to tell you that before, but there was never exactly a good time."

"What?"

"My name. It's…people where I'm from usually introduce themselves with both a personal name and a family name. For me, personal name Jake, family name Sully. But after the introduction part we tend to drop the family name, so it's just Jake."

That explained the shortened version of his name that almost everyone else seemed to use, anyway, and Tsu'tey nodded slightly. "Why did none of the other Dreamwalkers introduce themselves in this way?" Granted that he hadn't talked to very many of them personally, but as he recalled, the few that he had spoken to had all managed to introduce themselves properly.

"Probably because they all managed at least Na'vi 101 before they actually _met_ any Na'vi. I managed 'hey, they're blue and have tails.'"

Tsu'tey stared.

Jakesully—Jake—grinned and shook his head. "Unlike the rest of the Avatar drivers, I didn't really have any idea what I was doing when I met you guys. They'd all had some training, I…hadn't. So I just did what I'd have done back on Earth. Which wasn't right for Pandora, but I figured it had to be better than standing there staring like an idiot."

"About the same."

He rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

Tsu'tey grinned and was tempted to press—or at least harass—him further about his lack of knowledge of the Na'vi, but he had more important things to ask about. "Why is Neytiri angry?"

"You ran into her?"

"She nearly ran _over_ me."

Jake winced. "Sorry. Uh, let's just say it's a bad day. A really bad day." He paused. "Well, a really bad day and Norm being an idiot. I told him to keep his mouth shut about the whole Titanothere mess."

Tsu'tey cocked his head. Allowing himself to become too distracted to pay attention to his surroundings outside the Sky Person buildings had been a stupid thing to do, certainly, but he didn't think that it warranted _that_ much irritation. It was far from the first stupid thing that Jake had ever done, after all. "That is what made her so angry?"

He shook his head, looking away. "No, but hearing about it made me a convenient target for blowing off some anger. It's…Arden's not doing so well. Not well at all, actually."

Tsu'tey frowned. "You have the wrong name. Arden is a child." Intelligent and quick, he'd be starting to truly train as a hunter in two or three years, but for now he spent his days with the other children playing and learning.

"Yeah, I know he's a kid." Jake looked back at Tsu'tey, and the tiredness in his expression was suddenly much more pronounced. "You remember I told you about the children who were hurt when Hometree was destroyed being brought here for treatment?" He waited for Tsu'tey's nod. "Well, Arden was one of them; the worst injured of the lot. As far as anyone can tell, he tried to shield his brother with his body when a burning limb came down on top of them. And it looks like Sa'tai _will_ make it, although from what I understood they're going to keep him in the tank for a little while longer, but Arden's been getting weaker and weaker. Guess the docs decided yesterday afternoon that there was no more that anyone could do for him here. I just heard about it when Neytiri stopped by to tell me they were going to take him back to Hometree." He shrugged slightly. "And to yell."

It was Tsu'tey's turn to look away, his jaw tightening. He had not been told this, and as the clan leader, he should have been. But then, healers were notoriously reluctant to give patients information that would upset them, especially when no action the patient took could have any effect, so he perhaps he shouldn't be surprised that they'd not mentioned it. And he'd spent all of his time at the radio last night discussing the living situation at the new Hometree with two of his warriors who'd been taught to use the thing…they'd been concerned with keeping the people fed and protected and may not even have known about one injured child who wasn't even with them at the moment. His eyes snapped back to Jake's. "They are still here? The healers? Arden?"

"Maybe. Neytiri said they were in kind of a hurry to get him back, but they were taking some time to make sure that the painkillers had taken hold first. At least as much as they can. With burn victims…." Jake made a gesture of helplessness that Tsu'tey understood, even if he didn't like it.

"I wish to see them."

"Yeah, sure. If they're still here, they'll be in the lab. And, uh, if the docs ask, I totally forgot that I was supposed to wait for their okay to leave my room."

Despite his desire to reach this lab quickly, Tsu'tey couldn't help but be distracted as he watched Jake drag himself to the edge of his cot and then lower himself into the wheeled chair using only his arms. It was strange enough to see him wheeling himself about as he moved from room to room, but the way that he moved his legs, using his arms to lift them onto pads attached to the wheeled chair as though they didn't even belong to him, seemed almost unreal.

Jake's eyes met Tsu'tey's evenly once he was seated, the faintest hint of challenge in his expression, but when Tsu'tey didn't say anything, he swiveled the chair and began to wheel himself towards the door. "Come on, it's on the next level. The scientists did something to adapt the tanks they grew our Avatars in to use to help heal the kids and keep them pretty much pain-free while they were doing it."

"Tanks?"

"Kind of like big water containers, except it's not really water inside them."

Tsu'tey stared, and he shrugged.

"It's hard to explain. You'll see when we get there. But the elevator is going to be a little uncomfortable for you, I'm afraid. I know Neytiri absolutely hates it, and she can fold herself a lot smaller than you can at the moment."

"This entire place is uncomfortable," Tsu'tey returned. "I will survive."

He regretted his words soon after as they wedged themselves into a small metal box that made Jake's room—which he still thought was uncomfortably small—seem almost large by comparison. He had to both twist and bend to fit inside, balancing awkwardly against his crutch and one of the handles of Jake's chair to keep his injured led straight. "What does forcing ourselves into this room do?"

"It's an elevator. It lifts us up to the next level. There's a freight elevator that would be a little more comfortable, but it's at the other end of the building, and it has a few…issues."

"Can we not _climb_?" Or could _he_ at least climb—two arms and one good leg were perfectly sufficient—and Jake could get up there however he chose?

"Human—Sky People—buildings aren't really set up for that. I'm sure there are some access panels in the ceiling somewhere, but I wouldn't even know where to start looking for them. Watch your tail."

Tsu'tey hissed and pulled his tail inside as the metal doors closed, making the box seem even smaller, and his hands tightened on his crutch and the handle of Jake's wheeled chair. And then they clenched tighter still as the room began to move. He did not _like_ this.

"And here we are."

The doors didn't open nearly soon enough to suit him, and when he was finally able to step out into another corridor, he welcomed it. The ceiling was still low—although not quite as absurdly low as it was on the previous level—but at least here he could turn around.

"This way."

He followed Jake down the corridor a short distance and then into a large room filled with glowing…things. Small glowing things, large glowing things, things with abrupt edges and patterns that he'd never seen before. And these were not natural things, natural things he understood. These were…he didn't even know what they were.

"Don't touch," Jake warned quietly. "Scientists get irritated when you touch."

Tsu'tey shook his head minutely. That was _not_ going to be an issue. He wanted nothing to do with anything around him. A snatch of Na'vi caught his ears, and he realized abruptly that he could fully straighten in here.

"Around there." Jake indicated the direction the voices had come from.

For a moment Tsu'tey wondered why Jake didn't continue with him, but then he caught sight of several children floating in clear…containers…of some form, and words deserted him. Bad enough the tubes that ran into their small bodies, not so different than the tubes that been attached to him up until recently, but the sight of the burns that littered their skin, going deeper than their skin in many cases…. He didn't know whether to snarl or be sick.

When he and most of the rest of the clan's warriors had faced the Sky People at Hometree, those who had been too old to fight had taken those who were too young into hiding, deep within the structure. But when he and his warriors had failed to stop the attack and Hometree had burned, the non-fighters had found themselves at the heart of an inferno. They had all managed to escape, going out the opposite way that the Sky People machines had come in, but there had been many injuries among them. He'd known that at the time, but the only actual deaths had been among the warriors—those whose duty it was to risk themselves—and there had been another battle to plan, clans to gather…. This was the first time that he'd actually seen the damage done to the children for himself.

He fought down a wave of illness as he stepped closer to the nearest container. Tank. Before, when he'd heard 'injuries,' his mind had immediately assigned the sorts of childhood injuries that he was accustomed to: a gash from a sharp rock, a bone broken in a bad fall, an accidental burn from a fire-flare. Painful and unpleasant, but rarely life-threatening. But what he was seeing weren't normal injuries, and from what little he knew of burns, it looked as though death would almost be a kindness.

He shook his head, unable to tear his eyes away. It was not a gentle world he lived in. He knew that. Eywa maintained the balance, but for an individual there was always danger. But those dangers were for _adults_ to face; children were sheltered as best a clan could manage. Sheltered and protected. That did not prevent all injury, or even all death, of course; accidents still happened. And although they returned to Eywa, it was always a sad occurrence when a young one didn't have as much time in the world as they should have had. But while a death from an accident was...understandable...if still sorrowful, what had been done to these children had _not _been an accident.

A sob caught his ears, and he forced his eyes away from the tanks and continued forward, along the path lined by Sky Person things. Circling around the fourth tank, the one furthest from the door, he found Neytiri, his mother, an unfamiliar healer—Horse Clan, judging by his clothing, but no one that Tsu'tey recognized—and a Sky Person female standing beside Allei. Presumably the Sky Person was a healer of some form, but Tsu'tey's attention went immediately to Allei, who was holding her son in her arms.

He couldn't help but flinch slightly at the sight of Arden. He was not a healer, but even he could see that the child did not have much longer in this world. And unlike the ones in the tanks, he was in obvious pain. His continuous whimpers were barely audible, but Tsu'tey suspected that that was due only to his weakness. //You return him to Hometree?// he asked.

//He will join Eywa among his people,// his mother answered, showing no surprise at his sudden presence, although both Neytiri and the Horse Clan healer started in surprise.

Allei didn't even seem to see him, although she sobbed a bit louder at his mother's words, and Neytiri's surprised look was replaced with a glare as she put an arm around Allei's shoulders.

The Horse Clan healer bowed slightly. //Apologies, Ole'eyktan, but it would be best if we left quickly. There is still more pain than I had hoped, but…// He flicked his eyes towards the child, and Tsu'tey could see his worry.

//Of course.// He stepped back, allowing them to pass him. The reasoning for haste was obvious; if they didn't hurry, the boy would probably not survive the trip. As it was, he feared that they might have left it until too late. He would have—_should have_, he knew—offered Allei something, at least a word of comfort, but no words came to him, and, in truth, he doubted that she'd have heard him anyway.

//Do you need any assistance getting back to your room?// the female Sky Person asked, pausing as she passed him.

//No.// He was fairly certain that Jake was still around somewhere, but even if he wasn't, Tsu'tey had no wish to go anywhere right now. Of course, he had no real wish to stay here either, but….

The Sky Person seemed to take his word, though, hurrying to catch up with the other healers and leaving him standing in the quiet room, the only sounds around him being the beeping of the machines.

For a moment he remained where he was, leaning against his crutch, unsure what to do, and then a flicker of light caught his attention. He moved towards it, and found Jake sitting by one of the tanks. The one containing only a single child. "What are you doing?"

"They aren't asleep," Jake said quietly. "Not really. Just…kind of out of it. There's some stuff in the liquid that helps numbs their skin, but even so, it's better that they aren't fully awake." He pressed something against the side of the tank beside him, and shafts of light once again reflected up through the liquid. "It makes them smile, sometimes."

Tsu'tey indicated the child. "That's Sa'tai." He had probably once shared this tank with his brother. It explained why he was alone in it now.

"I know. I don't think he knows that his brother is gone yet." Jake did something to the object in his hand, and the lights changed color. "I guess it's just as well…there's enough pain right now without adding that too."

"What would you know about losing a brother to death?" Tsu'tey hissed, sorrow at Arden's impending death suddenly changing to rage as he found a suitable target. If the Sky People hadn't come—if the Sky People hadn't _attacked_—Arden and the other children here would still be playing happily beneath the branches of Hometree. His hands clenched, one into a fist and one into a crushing grip on his crutch. "You _abandoned_ your family to come here." Grace had told them about the six Sky Person years—a Sky Person year being not greatly different than a Pandoran year, if he remembered correctly—it took to get here from their home planet. "If you hadn't come, none of this would have happened!"

Jake spun in his wheelchair, and Tsu'tey wondered for an instant if this stupid, broken Sky Person was actually going to attack him, but instead he rolled himself backwards with a single hard push, letting the shining object fall to the floor. "I'm here _because_ my brother is dead, jackass. And as for the rest of it—do you think I don't _know_ that?"


	5. Confrontations

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_/speech/=Na'vi  
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_Out of sight of any prying eyes, Tsu'tey leaned against the exterior of the Sky People's building and took a few deep breaths. Despite what his healers no doubt believed—and had warned him against several times—he wouldn't be taking any walks into the forest for some time to come. Even he could tell that it would be too taxing for his still-healing leg, and he wasn't about to do anything that would allow them to confine him to that room again. Still, it was good to breathe real air again. And this entrance was close enough to his room that he felt comfortable moving through the look-alike corridors to reach it on his own. Norm had tried to explain the maps posted at the corridor corners and how the markings related to various locations, but it all seemed to rely too much on the ability to read the Sky Person symbols to be of any real use to him.

He took another deep breath, feeling it relaxing him further. While he still had to use the crutch, at least there was no longer that uncomfortable pull in his abdomen when he moved about. He'd never admitted the extent of the pain, but its absence was a definite relief.

He scanned the sky, hoping to see Denan. The healers might have finally given him directions outdoors, but they still refused to tell him where the hanger where she was spending her days was, which meant that his only chance to see how she was doing for himself was to call her down to him. Unfortunately, that required that she fly past at an appropriate time. Jake might have been willing to go against their edict and take him to the hanger himself, but Tsu'tey hadn't seen him in since their…well, it hadn't precisely been a _fight_, but if Jake hadn't left, that's probably what it would have turned into. And Norm, who had become his most common Sky Person visitor aside from the healers in the past few days, absolutely refused to do anything that might upset said healers. It was ridiculous.

He was still contemplating the absurdity of some of the limitations the healers had placed upon him when a sound that didn't belong caught his ears, and he dropped down into a partial crouch automatically, scanning the area for the source of the noise. That had _not_ been a natural sound of the forest. Granted that there was little forest left here, immediately around the building, and that there were many unnatural sounds in the Sky People's place—enough so that he had almost become accustomed to hearing them from his room—but why he would hear one _outside_….

He crept in the direction the noise was coming from, more upright than he preferred to be when scouting, but it was the only way that he could continue to use the crutch. It didn't seem that his caution was necessary, though; the sound was coming from one of the walking war machines that was making its way out of a much larger door, and there was no way that he would be heard above the disgusting sounds that it emitted.

Such machines had been responsible for the slaughter of many of the warriors of Horse Clan, and he hissed quietly. He knew that there were still a few enemy Sky People on Pandora—mostly miners, but a few fighters as well; something about limits on the number that could be taken off at a time on the shuttles and the need to rest the shuttles between trips—and if they had found a way to escape the place the Sky People scientists were keeping them locked up and found their fighting machines….

He hissed again and drew his knife. He only saw one, and the machine didn't even have the clear shield that made a direct attack difficult. And he knew as well as anyone that if you killed the Sky Person on the inside, the machine would die too. Individual Sky People were easy to kill.

The thing's back was to him, and he crept a bit closer before springing, letting his crutch fall as he used his good leg to launch himself upwards. The machine spun at his attack, but he managed to get a good grip with one arm and his uninjured leg and it only took a moment to pull himself the rest of the way up and over the back, putting himself in a perfect position to strike.

With a snarl, he drove his knife downwards with his free hand, and although an undersized hand flashed up to meet his, it held no weapon, and he ignored it. No Sky Person could ever hope to meet the strength of a Na'vi. Except—he felt himself lurch forward as the Sky Person grabbed his wrist and yanked his arm down _harder_, deflecting his blow to the side rather than attempting to stop it as he'd expected. A second pale hand shot upwards at the same time, and Tsu'tey hissed and pulled back, blinking furiously. He still had his knife in his hand, though, and even with this bad angle he should be able to overcome the Sky Person's grip and drive it into—

"Damn it, Tsu'tey, knock it off!"

"Jake?" He blinked again, harder, and then looked down again, ceasing any attempt at attack. "You put your fingers in my eyes!"

"Yeah, well, you started it! Besides, would you rather I poked you in the eye or _shot_ you in the eye? Because you didn't exactly leave me with a lot of other options." He released Tsu'tey's wrist, not bothering to wait for an answer. "You scared the _hell_ out of me."

"Well, if you hadn't been in a war machine—"

"It's not a war machine, it's an AMP, and does it _ever_ occur to you to say 'hello'?"

Tsu'tey snarled at that and then shifted fully upright, tucking his knife back onto his belt before settling himself a bit more securely on the machine's frame and glaring down at Jake.

Jake stared right back at him through the clear face mask, expression hard, and the silence drew out.

Tsu'tey's tail twitched slightly. He disliked apologizing. He _greatly_ disliked it. But while he was quick to anger—he always had been—he also calmed relatively quickly once his fury had passed, and he was honest enough to admit that what had happened hadn't been Jake's fault. Not today…and not back at Hometree. Not really. Jake had been convenient for his anger, but relations between the Sky People and the Omaticaya had been bad and getting worse long before Neytiri had brought the Dreamwalker to them.

Jake should have told them about what was coming far earlier than he had, that was true enough, but even if he had done so, Tsu'tey suspected that things would have ended up very much the same. Well, there was a very good chance that Jake would have been executed if they'd had the time, Neytiri's defense notwithstanding, but even if he had told them _exactly_ what they would face, the Omaticaya would not have abandoned Hometree without a fight. No matter what Jake said, he doubted that any of them, himself included—perhaps himself most of all—would have believed in the sheer destructive power of the Sky People's weaponry until they'd seen for themselves. _Really_ seen it, not just the few glimpses they'd had of the guns and war machines in action or of the larger machines that continued rolling and destroying the land no matter how many arrows were put in their wheels. And if Jake hadn't been there for the second battle, both as Toruk Makto to rally the other clans and as a Dreamwalker warrior to tell them where those machines had weaknesses, things would probably have ended considerably worse.

That didn't change the fact that he didn't like apologies, though, and although he'd recognized less than a day after seeing the children that Arden's death wasn't Jake's fault, he hadn't tried to seek out Jake. Nor would he have, at least not for a while longer, not until he ran _completely_ out of patience with being forced to deal only with healers and scientists. However, he wasn't cowardly enough to let that dislike stop him now that they were face to face, and he flexed his fingers against the metal of the machine and then spoke. "I…apologize. For the attack—" although he knew perfectly well that that wasn't the actual source of Jake's irritation, and besides, he still didn't understand why Jake was in a war machine—"and for what I said. Before. I was angry about Arden, and you were…there." He paused. "And I did not know about your brother."

Jake shrugged, his expression clearing. "It's okay. It's…there's no reason you would have. And I guess I should have marked this thing with _something_, although I was kind of hoping the fact that I didn't have the shield on would be a clue." He looked away. "And like I said, the rest of it's nothing that I didn't already know."

/Moron./

"Huh?"

"If it were true, I would have no issue with the fact that I said it."

Jake shook his head.

Tsu'tey hissed. Why couldn't Jake let this go without making him say it? "Arden—Hometree—was not your fault."

That got another headshake. "Well I sure as hell didn't _help_."

If he had been in his Dreamwalker body, Tsu'tey might have given in to the urge to smack him for his obstinacy, but he wasn't sure how much force a Sky Person body could withstand. And since he'd said what he felt was necessary, even if it seemed that Jake was going to be stupid about listening, he decided to let the subject drop. At least for the time being. "What happened to your hands?" He was reasonably certain that he hadn't injured Jake—somewhat humiliating considering the circumstances of his attack, although he didn't care to think on that right now—but the backs of his hands bore cuts and more oddly colored marks that hadn't been there the last time they'd spoken.

"Got into it with a punching bag a couple days ago."

"Got into…what?"

That got a half-grin. "A punching bag is something to hit when you're pissed besides another person, but depending on how hard you go at it, it can do some damage in return." He shrugged. "So you're cleared to be out and about and assaulting people then?"

Tsu'tey glared, although there was no real heat behind it. "If I don't walk far." And continued to follow a host of other absurd conditions. "What _are_ you doing in this machine?"

"I'm going back out mine-hunting. My head feels all right, and the scans I got before the Titanothere turned up looked decent, so I wanted to try disarming a couple. You hiding from the docs or what?"

"I'm enjoying real air. Why take this…AMP?"

That 'real air' comment got a snort, but he didn't actually object. "Because I need to get to a mine, and they work well enough for scouting around. Besides, like I said before, Pandora's not exactly wheelchair friendly, so it's not like I've got a lot of other options." He paused, frowning, and then, "You want to come along? Promise I won't tell the docs."

"What?"

"Well, in the interests of not getting knocked around by another Titanothere, I could use a second set of eyes keeping watch while I try to disarm the things. Injured or not, you've got better qualifications than anyone else on the base." He grinned slightly. "Besides, if you're _with_ me, I don't have to worry about you—or whoever is watching this place, and yes, I know they're there, I'm not actually an idiot—attacking me. I seriously don't need to get reinjured; the docs will have my hide."

Tsu'tey glared again, but Jake didn't look the least bit intimidated, and after a moment he decided that he liked the idea. With one fairly obvious caveat. "I can't walk very far yet."

"So ride. You're fine up there. This thing was built for heavy operations, and you don't weigh anywhere near enough to throw it off balance."

He considered for a minute and then scrambled down quickly, picking his crutch back up. "I will get my bow." Neytiri had been nice enough to retrieve it, restring it, and bring it to the Sky People's place for him, much to his healers' displeasure, and while it might be unnecessary, he was _not_ foolish enough to make such assumptions.

It didn't take long, mostly because he didn't encounter any healers who would object, and then he found a comfortable perch on top of the AMP as Jake began to walk it away from the base. It didn't have the smoothest gait, and he still found the amount of noise it made disturbing, but in the interests of being out in the open again, he would tolerate it.

After a few minutes of scanning the terrain, during which he saw no threats but did identify one of the watch points—unmanned, at the moment—that the Na'vi were using to keep an eye on the base, he looked down at Jake. "Why _aren't_ you using the shield? It would be safer." Marginally, at least. If nothing else, the lack of it wouldn't keep the ones watching the base from shooting if they thought he was a threat. The fact that he carried no weapon and moved without fear was far more likely to still their hand.

"Maybe, but I'm going to need to get out to disarm the mines, and it'll just get in the way. As it is, I'm going to have to put the AMP on its back to get in and out, so…." He shrugged. "Hang on."

Tsu'tey did as he asked as the machine jumped a small ravine and then he scanned the area around them for a few more minutes before looking down again. "What happened to your brother?"

"What?" The machine slowed as Jake looked up at him.

"You said you were here because your brother was dead. What happened to him?"

Jake's gaze shifted back to the land around them, the machine resuming its previous pace as they began to move through the heavier undergrowth that had sprung up since the larger trees had been cut back, and when he spoke again his voice was flat. "He got shot."

"In battle?" It was an honorable way to die, although he understood all too well the pain for those left behind.

"What? No. Tommy wasn't a soldier." From Jake's tone, he found some amusement in that idea, although Tsu'tey had no idea why. "He was a scientist. Like Norm. That's why they picked him to be an Avatar driver."

Tsu'tey didn't really understand why being a scientist would qualify someone to be a Dreamwalker, but he had more interesting things to pursue at the moment. "Then how did he get shot?"

"A man with a gun wanted something he had." Jake shook his head. "It was stupid. He didn't have to kill him. If he'd just _told_ Tommy to give him his wallet, Tom wouldn't have put up a fight. But the guy shot first, and by the time help got there…." He shook his head again and went silent.

"This was recent?" Tsu'tey guessed.

"Happened about a week before the ship left Earth. Which was technically over six years ago, but since I slept through the whole trip out here, it feels like it's only been a couple months."

Recent, then. He considered for a minute and then decided that it would be best to go back to his other question. "Why would being a scientist qualify someone to be a Dreamwalker? They don't understand. Don't _learn_ anything."

That got a surprised look and then a chuckle. "Oh, they learn. It might not be about the things you want to teach them or the things you care about, but believe me, scientists learn. And then they deduce and conclude and make hypotheses, after which comes a whole hell of a lot of other shit that all boils down to figuring things out. When it comes to sheer brainpower, they're about the smartest people out there. That's why they get the Avatars."

"I don't understand." The scientists had never fit in with the Na'vi, not really; it seemed to him that sending non-scientists was the obvious thing to do. Not that he particularly _wanted_ a bunch of Dreamwalkers wandering around, but….

Jake sighed. "It's expensive to make an Avatar. _Really_ expensive. Like fix me a hundred times over expensive. So they can only make a few, and those are reserved for the smartest people they can find. Which are scientists. And there's a lot of competition among them just to get a _posting_ on Pandora, never mind make Avatar driver. Tommy talked about some of the qual stuff he had to do, and it was crazy. With that kind of waiting list, nobody's going to bother wasting money on any for dumb grunts like me." He brought the machine to a halt. "Mine number one, dead ahead."

Tsu'tey couldn't see what Jake's instruments were showing him, but when he concentrated he could smell an odd metal tang in the air that was different than the smell of the AMP, and he glared at what he thought was the source before looking back down at Jake. "But you're here."

"Yeah, because they'd already started growing Tommy's Avatar when he was killed. Their only options at that point were to either take me in his place or get rid of the Avatar since no one else could use it. Companies like RDA hate wasting money, although I think some of the science-types might have preferred it. At least at first." He looked up. "Hop off, would you? And don't get in front of me. I need to lay this thing down so I can get to the mine."

Tsu'tey did as Jake asked, tucking his crutch under one arm and keeping his bow in his other hand as he moved slightly away from the machine. "So your Dreamwalker body—your Avatar—is not yours?"

"It is now, but it wasn't supposed to be." Jake did something that caused the machine to sink to its knees.

"But that is not possible. Grace explained how the Dreamwalker bodies work." It had been many years ago, while he had attended her school, but it had been something that had interested him, and he remembered most of it. "Dreamwalker bodies are part Na'vi and part Sky Person, and the part of each Sky Person that is used to make one is what allows that Dreamwalker's soul to find the body."

"Why didn't I get that explanation?" Jake asked, doing something made the machine's arms reached for the ground. Once its hands were down, it lowered itself carefully until its chest was almost against the ground and then rolled so its back touched down first. "I got a bunch of crap about genotypes and neural transfer and whatever."

"Geeno…?"

"Never mind." He looked up at Tsu'tey as his fingers began to work on the straps holding him in the machine. "Why isn't it possible?"

"She said that each Dreamwalker has his own Dreamwalker body, and that body is that Dreamwalker's alone because only his soul can find it. How could your soul find your brother's body?"

"It's…this is where the genotype stuff does come in, I guess." Jake shrugged slightly and then the harness fell away and he pushed himself into a sitting position. "Let's just say that if it was anyone but Tom's Avatar, I couldn't do it. But Tommy and I were more than brothers, we were identical twins, so a part of him—at least physically—is exactly the same as a part of me. So my soul can find his Avatar." He shrugged and began to drag himself out of the machine.

"I know 'identical,' but what is 'twins'?" Tsu'tey asked, slinging his bow onto his back and stepping forward, reaching for Jake. The way he'd positioned the machine, the mine was only a short distance away, and—

"Do it, and I'll wheel over your tail the first chance I get."

Tsu'tey paused, arm still outstretched, meeting Jake's glare with some confusion. He'd thought that it would be more convenient for him to just lift Jake out of the machine rather than waiting for him to drag himself out and over to the mine, but Jake looked entirely serious. And getting his tail _stepped on_ was bad enough.

"I've got this."

Tsu'tey lowered his arm and waited for Jake to shift himself over to the mine. He managed, but it still took longer than it would have if Tsu'tey had helped. After he was beside it and carefully pulling the greenery away so that it was clearly visible, Tsu'tey moved to crouch next to him. The thing was relatively small and didn't look at all threatening, but then, none of the Sky People weapons looked as destructive as they were. "Can you disarm it?"

"Yeah, I think so." He pulled something out of the pack on his shoulder—a metal stick, by the look of things—and started to reach for the mine, and then he looked up quickly. "Get back behind the AMP, all right? If I'm wrong or if I screw this up, there's no reason for both of us to get fried."

"Screw it…?"

"If I do it wrong."

"Don't screw it up," Tsu'tey returned, although he did move back slightly.

"Seriously," Jake said, twisting to look at him. "Get behind the AMP. I'm not risking taking out both of us, however unlikely that is."

The thing still didn't look _that_ dangerous to him, but then, Jake was the one who knew what the things could do. He moved back.

"Twins are siblings that are born at the same time and look just alike," Jake said as he leaned down and began to work on the mine. "Or, at least, the identical version do. Sound familiar?"

/Twins?/ Tsu'tey checked, watching Jake's actions from behind the prone AMP.

"If you say so." Jake shrugged, and then set something—a flat, shiny piece that looked like the top of the mine—aside. "We can ask Norm if you want to know for sure, but your English is better than my Na'vi so I'm willing to take your word for it." He twisted to look back at Tsu'tey for a moment, pulling another metal item out of his pack. "You sound surprised."

"It is very rare that two are born in place of one. It's considered a special blessing from Eywa."

"Well, I don't know about blessings, but it suited Tom and me just fine." He shook his head slightly and then went back to work for a minute. "All right, triggers are clear, I just need to cut—"

"Be _still_."

"Tsu'tey?"

He should have seen them approaching sooner, and he was going to curse himself for that later—assuming they survived—but with all the large trees cut back, the low vegetation had grown much thicker than normal. And he'd been paying more attention to Jake's words and actions than to their surroundings, which was a foolish mistake for one supposed to be on watch. Tsu'tey made a quick count of the ones he could see…it was not a _small_ pack, but it was not a large one either. If he was uninjured, or if Jake was in his Dreamwalker body, he would not have considered them a serious threat. But then, if either of those things were true, it was unlikely that they would have approached this closely.

"Tsu'tey?" Jake repeated, now looking around warily, a dark object that Tsu'tey didn't recognize in his hands.

/_Blind_,/ he snapped, setting his legs as firmly as he could and bringing his bow up. Granted that Jake was too low to the ground to see _much_ through the vegetation, but still. /Viperwolves./

"Outstanding. I don't suppose they're just here to take a look and will then go away nicely?"

Tsu'tey didn't bother answering, but then, he didn't really need to. Now that he saw the silhouette of Jake's weapon he recognized it as a gun. It was the smallest one he'd ever seen, but then the Sky People were small, and it did seem to fit Jake's hand well enough. "Can you get back in the machine? Get it standing again?" Not that the viperwolves weren't perfectly capable of leaping that high, but it would be easier for Tsu'tey to defend them if Jake was off the ground.

"Not fast enough. And this mine is still armed."

That wasn't Tsu'tey's major concern at the moment, although it did make it a great deal more dangerous to move up beside Jake as he'd intended. Being able to maneuver was important, and he'd never had to worry about maneuvering around something that could blow him up before. Then again, from the way things were going, if he moved up he would have to avoid stepping on _Jake_ too, so— The grass moved and he opened his mouth to shout a warning, but however blind Jake might be, there was nothing to insult in his reaction time.

Jake let himself fall backwards to the ground before Tsu'tey made a single sound, and the viperwolf that had launched itself at him sailed right over him. He pushed himself back into a sitting position and fired at it before it could spring again, sending it yelping away, but the rest of the pack seemed to take that as a signal to attack. "_Shit_."

Tsu'tey couldn't exactly disagree, and his first shot took the next viperwolf that leapt at Jake in the foot. His second scored another down the side, and then he had to move forward despite his worries about maneuverability, ignoring the spike of pain that shot through his leg as he did so. There were more of the viperwolves than he'd realized, and while he didn't have enough arrows to continue with scoring blows, he didn't want to kill any more of them than he had to. It wasn't their fault that that machine made so much noise it practically screamed 'meal here.'

Jake smacked the next one that came at him with his metal stick. "Tsu'tey, six!"

Tsu'tey struck one that had veered towards him with his bow, sending it flying away, and then scanned the pack in front of him trying to figure out which six of the things Jake was referring to. Were there even six of them? There had been, but it was hard to say now from the way they were moving. Then a weight hit him from behind and sent him crashing into the AMP, and his vision flashed white as his injured leg impacted the hard metal.


	6. Stubborn

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

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* * *

_The viperwolf landed on top of him as he struggled to regain control, its claws opening cuts on his shoulders and down his back, and Tsu'tey was almost glad of the sharp sting of each scratch. They distracted him from the pain in his leg and allowed him to find the strength to roll and throw the thing to the side. He didn't manage to throw it far enough, though, and he had no time to bring his bow around before it sprang again. He was reaching up to meet it, to try and hold it off him, when there was a sharp 'crack' and its head snapped around, blood pouring out of its eye socket. It would die from Jake's strike, Tsu'tey realized immediately, but there was no time to offer any prayer as he turned his attention to the others.

The killing shot drove back others back for a few moments, which gave Tsu'tey time to get to his feet, but he didn't see where his crutch had landed, and he had no time to search for it. When another viperwolf that came at him head-on, he sent it flying with a heavy swing of his bow, and then he swiveled on his good leg to swipe at one behind him. It was too far back for him to connect, but one of its forelegs appeared to be injured—whether from one of his strikes or Jake's he couldn't tell—and the fact that he was upright and facing it seemed to give it pause in its attack.

A yell distracted him before he could attempt to drive it back further, and he spun back towards Jake. One of the viperwolves had him on his back, and although Jake was keeping its jaws away from his throat, one of his arms was bleeding badly, and he obviously wasn't going to be able to hold it at bay much longer. And that was saying nothing of the other three that were circling.

One of the three twisted to snarl at Tsu'tey, and he ignored the fierce pain in his injured leg as he sprang forward again. One sweep of his bow sent that viperwolf flying, a second knocked away the one on top of Jake—it landed clear of the mine, fortunately; he hadn't even considered the mine's location when he'd struck—but other viperwolves were moving to join the two still circling, and if they attacked in concert, Tsu'tey could not hope to hold them all back.

"Behind the AMP!" Jake called.

That made no sense—he'd been back there when the attack had started, and it would be foolish for them to separate again now—so Tsu'tey ignored him in favor of swiping at another viperwolf that came at them from the side.

"Tsu'tey!"

Tsu'tey hissed, swinging at another, and then risked a quick glance downward. Jake had pushed himself back into a sitting position and retrieved his gun, but aside from the fact that his arm was streaked with Sky Person blood, there was also blood down his back and the front of his legs, and his metal stick was missing. And although he continued to twist, training his gun on one viperwolf after another, he seemed curiously reluctant to fire.

"I've got an idea, but we need to get _behind_ the AMP," Jake repeated, glancing up at him.

And Jake wouldn't be able to make that jump on his own, Tsu'tey realized immediately. Then again, he wasn't entirely sure that _he_ could make that jump right now, at least not in a single leap. And lifting someone, even someone child-sized, would not make things any easier. He could put no weight on his damaged leg, and he had no doubt that as soon as he allowed himself to think about it at all, he was going to realize how very, very much it hurt. The pain was enough now, when he was trying _not_ to think about it.

The next viperwolf that came at them made it inside Tsu'tey's range, and his return strike with his bow sent it flying into a nearby bush with a pained yelp. The others snarled in response, and Tsu'tey switched his bow to his off hand and reached down to grab the upper portion of Jake's uninjured arm. Whatever Jake's idea was, he doubted that it could leave them in a _worse_ situation.

Another viperwolf tensed for attack, and Tsu'tey leapt. His vision once again flashed to white as he didn't jump quite high enough—a combination of having only one functioning leg and Jake weighing slightly more than he'd expected, he thought—and he knocked his trailing foot against the edge of the machine, the action sending spasms of pain up his bad leg. Still, he managed, barely, to maintain his balance, and made a second leap that put them over the far end of the AMP. And on the ground, as the impact severely jarred his injured leg and left him unable to do anything more than curl inwards, gasping in pain.

He'd managed to avoid landing on Jake, at least, but that had been more by luck than anything else, and he only vaguely recognized the 'crack' of Jake's weapon through the haze of pain.

Something roared immediately afterward, and for a moment a blast of heat overrode everything and he could see a flare of fire even through his tightly-closed eyelids. Two more roars followed.

"_Definitely_ daisy-chained."

The pain made it difficult to think, and Tsu'tey made no attempt to puzzle out the words.

There was a sigh, and then, "Tsu'tey?" A thump followed, and then an undersized hand shook his shoulder. "Tsu'tey? Talk to me, would you?" A harder shake. "Come on, if you die on me, I am going to be in _so_ much trouble."

Tsu'tey managed to hiss at him.

The hand on his shoulder squeezed lightly. "Oh, don't get pissed off yet, I haven't told you the really bad part about that brilliant idea of mine."

"What…what _was_ the brilliant idea?" Tsu'tey managed to ask, taking several deep breaths and once again forcing the pain down. After a moment more of careful breathing, he made himself sit up slowly and did his best to pretend that he was fine. That he didn't have an almost uncontrollable desire to curl up in a dark corner and moan from the sheer _pain_ he was in. He didn't recall his leg feeling this bad before, even when he'd first awoken in the Sky People's compound.

"I detonated the mine. Which did scare off the viperwolves, it looks like, but unfortunately it also set off a couple others that I really didn't want to."

"And that is not the 'really bad' part?" He couldn't see how much damage the mine had done from his current position, but he could smell the char easily enough.

"No, that would be the part where there's a good chance that the blast totally slagged the AMP's control panel."

"Slagged?"

"Destroyed. Melted down, specifically. The cockpit was pointed right at the mine and was well inside the blast radius."

"Which means…what?" The pain was making it difficult to think.

"Well, assuming I'm right, if we're lucky the automatic return-to-base mechanism that's supposed to save the AMP even when the operator is dead is still functional. It's buried pretty deep in the system so I figure our odds are actually decent on that one. In that case, as long as we're on the AMP when it activates, we just have to hang on and it will walk us back to the base." He shook his head and did something that caused his small gun to open, frowning at whatever he saw inside it although he didn't look particularly surprised.

"And if you're right but we're not lucky?"

"Then I activate the distress beacon and we get to wait here until someone comes to get us." He shook his head and snapped the gun shut.

Tsu'tey groaned. He wouldn't be allowed to leave that room for _months_.

"Yeah, pretty much." Jake didn't sound any happier than we felt. "And between the fact that you look like shit, I doubt I look much better, and I'm down to my last two bullets, we're going to be in real trouble if the viperwolves decide to come back in the meantime." He shook his head and then sighed. "Come on, we'd better get on the AMP. Maybe I'm wrong about the damage and I can get us back. And even if I'm _not_ wrong, the last thing we need is it getting up and walking away without us."

"You're bleeding," Tsu'tey commented as Jake caught the edge of the AMP and hauled himself onto it. He'd noticed earlier, but the quantity of blood down the back of Jake's shirt seemed to have increased greatly in the short time since he'd last looked. And he very much doubted that Jake continuing to move around was going to improve the situation. "How badly are you injured?"

"Gashes, mostly. Those things have legs longer than my arms are in this body, unfortunately." He shrugged his uninjured shoulder. "Most of them aren't too deep, I don't think. I'm not totally sure about the ones on my legs since I can't actually feel anything, but the blood isn't coming out fast enough for anything vital to have been hit. I'll tie them off in a minute. How about you?"

"A few cuts as well. And my leg is broken again." At the very least…he was pretty sure he'd undone the vast majority of healing that had occurred since his original injury today. Or at least undone the healing to the bone; the flesh seemed to be mostly intact. He shook his head and then took a deep breath, catching the edge of the AMP and using it to lever himself upright. He tried to keep his bad leg from impacting anything as he climbed onto it, but he wasn't entirely successful, and it took a few moments to get his breathing back under control. He turned to Jake as they began to move slowly towards the other end of the AMP where the control panel had been, both dragging themselves along for the most part. "What six were you talking about?" At least listening gave him something else to focus on besides the pain.

"Huh?" He ceased moving down the frame of the AMP for a moment, looking back with a frown.

"You yelled something about six of them when we were fighting. Which six?"

"Oh." Jake winced. "Sorry."

"What?"

"It's a military thing. 'Six' means 'behind you.' Not that there's actually six of anything."

Tsu'tey remembered the viperwolf knocking him down against the AMP immediately after Jake had spoken, and he glared. "Next time, say 'behind you.'"

"I'll try. It's…I'm just not exactly used to speaking civilian in combat."

Tsu'tey shook his head, waiting until Jake lowered himself into the section of the machine that had once housed both the control panel and the straps to hold the operator in place—it was now a charred and black void—before shifting into the most comfortable seat he could manage on the AMP's chest. Which was not only not particularly comfortable, it also gave him an excellent view of the black, burned section of land in front of the AMP. "I do not _like_ these mines."

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us." Jake sighed, tapping something on the remains of the control panel. "And this is totally fried."

"How long until we know whether it will take us back to base on its own?"

"Well, the default for combat mecha is to fall back fifteen minutes after it stops receiving input from the panel—if an operator can fix whatever is wrong, he can usually do it in that span of time, and if he can't or he's dead you don't want a bunch of dead weight clogging up your battle lines—but I don't know whether the programming is different for the AMPs or not. Figure I'll give it that long, and then if it doesn't start walking, I'll trigger the beacon."

Tsu'tey grimaced, but he couldn't exactly fault Jake's logic. As little as he wanted anyone to fetch him, they could not remain here for any length of time. He looked back down at Jake. "What does 'six' have to do with being attacked from behind, anyway?"

Jake pulled a square box from out of his bag—which, fortunately, since it was attached to his mask, had remained with him through the fight—and looked up at him with a shrug of his uninjured shoulder. "It's a pretty ancient military term. At least a couple hundred years old, I think. Back then, the way people oriented was based on the old, round kind of clocks. Like with arms and stuff."

Tsu'tey frowned.

"Never mind, it doesn't really matter. Anyway, the basic directions are twelve, six, three, and nine—in front, behind, to the right, and to the left. The only one that's still common use is six, though, except for maybe among pilots. Like I said, I'll try and remember not to do it again. Ah." He pulled a handful of cloths out of the box and offered them to Tsu'tey. "Need a bandage?"

Tsu'tey took one of the longer ones, wrapping it awkwardly around his chest several times and doing his best to line it up with the worst of the cuts on his back. Fortunately they were fairly shallow, more painful than life-threatening, because he had difficulty putting pressure in the right spots. And for the cuts across his shoulders he was forced to simply clean the blood away with a second bandage, because he could not get it to wrap appropriately.

"I can do field stitches—kind of like tying the cuts shut—if you think you need them," Jake offered as he watched Tsu'tey try and fail a second time. "It'll hurt like hell though."

He was already in enough pain from his leg, and it did not feel that he was losing too much blood—at least not when he wasn't moving about stretching the injuries—so he shook his head. "I will be fine." At least until he was back at the base and among healers who had access to the proper type of plants to seal cuts shut until the skin could close naturally. "Yourself?"

Now that Tsu'tey was looking directly down at Jake, he could see that the blood down his back—and some down his chest as well—all seemed to be coming from a wide cut beside his neck. Jake had already ripped away pieces of the material covering his legs and his injured upper arm and tied bandages around them, but he was having the same difficulty with the injury to his shoulder that Tsu'tey was. Jake gave a slight shake of his head and pressed a folded piece of cloth against the gash with a wince. "I'm afraid this one's bad enough that I _do_ need stitches, but it'll be all right for now. I—"

He broke off with a frown at a low whine, and Tsu'tey turned as well to find a viperwolf lying just inside the edge of the charred area. He hadn't noticed it before, its black skin—black skin that also bore burns, he could see now—blending in with the burned forest around it.

"Damn," Jake muttered.

Tsu'tey drew his knife automatically, but Jake caught his arm before he could climb down and attempt to end the thing's pain.

"I've got it. Your leg is starting to bleed again; I don't think you'd better move any more than you have to."

Tsu'tey swore as he checked the bandage the healers had put on this morning and recognized the discoloration of blood starting to seep through. He hadn't noticed it before, but it seemed that he'd been wrong about the flesh being intact…if they survived the trip back, the healers were going to kill him. His _mother_ was going to kill him.

The viperwolf whined again, and Jake twisted himself around fully and leveled his gun. He ran through the prayer more quickly than Tsu'tey would have, but at least he got it right—accented, but right—and the single shot he fired killed the dying animal immediately. Tsu'tey nodded slightly in approval.

If Jake saw he didn't acknowledge it as he checked his gun again and then put the piece of cloth back against his neck. "Well, one bullet left. Let's hope we don't need it."

* * *

/Dinnertime,/ Norm announced cheerfully, and Tsu'tey hissed at him. To absolutely no effect. Norm had become much more difficult to intimidate since his first visit to Tsu'tey's room. Which was probably just as well, since he was the only non-healer visitor that Tsu'tey had had recently.

When he and Jake had arrived back at the base—the AMP had brought them rather than forcing someone to collect them, which had been some small consolation, at least—they had been met with half a dozen furious healers. And, on short order, Tsu'tey had once again found himself confined to this room and this bed. Jake had been taken off in another direction at the same time, and as Tsu'tey hadn't seen him in since, he suspected that he'd received similar treatment. He wasn't entirely sure how long they'd been back, though...two days, perhaps? Three? The healers had rendered him unconscious to work on his leg, and between that and the painkillers they'd given him immediately afterward, it had been impossible to track the passage of time.

/You know, I think there's a weird sort of argument going among the healers about which one of you is the worse patient,/ Norm said with a shake of his head, handing a tray of food to Tsu'tey. /On the whole, Jake's not much friendlier than you, but he is more polite—or at least he doesn't actually _snarl_ at his visitors most of the time, although I think he's blown up at Carla once or twice—but you're way ahead when it comes to doing what you're told./

/What do you mean?/ Tsu'tey asked, taking a quick bite. Mush, all of it—he hadn't damaged his abdomen again, but his healers still seemed determined to return him to an invalid's diet. He suspected that it was an odd sort of revenge for getting injured again.

Norm shrugged. /Jake wasn't exactly cleared to take an AMP out in the first place when you two went mine-hunting, and since you got back he's already torn the stitches in his shoulder three times trying to use that arm. Three times in _two days_. I mean, you think he'd take a hint—the cut itself wasn't too bad, just wide, but there's a deeper puncture wound inside it from the tip of a claw that came pretty close to nicking an artery—but at this rate they're going to have to tie him down to get him to heal./

Tsu'tey's tail twitched in irritation. /He said nothing about being injured when we left./ Of course, he had not said that he was _not_, either; he'd simply said that his head felt better. He hissed again quietly.

/Yeah, well, I think Jake's become so used to ignoring people when they tell him that he _can't_ do things that he doesn't bother to listen when they have actual reasons that he _shouldn't_./ He shook his head. /At least the muscle damage is just superficial…I'm not sure he would have been able to stand anything serious./ Another shake of his head. /If he'd just stay _put_, he'd be fine in a couple days./

/Foolish./ Tsu'tey might chafe at the healers' restrictions, but he had more sense than to go directly counter to them. At least when it came to stressing himself physically—things like checking his ikran were _not _stressful, their refusal in that situation was just over-protectiveness. But this wasn't the first time Jake had disregarded the healers in regards to his well-being...he hadn't been supposed to leave his room when he'd taken Tsu'tey to see the children either.

/Stubborn, at least,/ Norm agreed. /Apparently it really does run in the family./

Tsu'tey cocked his head at that, remembering his and Jake's conversation before the attack. /You knew that Jake had a brother, then? Did you know him?/

/Tom? Yeah, sure, he was a friend of mine. We went through Avatar training together./

/The term for what they were is 'twins,' correct?/

/Yes./ Norm paused. /Wait, Jake told you about him?/

/He mentioned him, yes./ There was no need to go into the circumstances under which he'd done so. /You seem surprised./

/It's just, I've only ever heard Jake mention Tom _once_—well twice, technically, but Grace was baiting him the second time—and that first time I'm pretty sure he didn't mean for me to overhear him. Which…./ He shrugged slightly. /I can understand it, don't get me wrong. Tom hasn't been dead very long—not from our perspective, at least—and I know they were close./

Tsu'tey could also understand not wanting to speak about the dead soon after a loss, but given that Norm had known Jake's brother and didn't seem to mind speaking of him…well, he was curious. /He was really a scientist? How could they be identical and yet…not?/ Tsu'tey had no reason to disbelieve Jake, of course, but of the few twins born among the Na'vi, he had _never_ heard of any choosing separate paths for their lives. Especially paths that were so divergent.

/Tom was really a scientist,/ Norm agreed with a nod and a grin. /And by outward appearances, he and Jake are—were—the exact same./ His grin grew. /I knew that, and I was still a little shocked when we got off the ship and I met Jake for the first time. But they aren't—they weren't…./ He shook his head and then continued. /Being physically identical isn't the same as being mentally identical. They were two very different people./ He paused. /Well, maybe not _quite_ as different as I thought at first, but still different./

/What do you mean?/

/Definitely both stubborn, for one—I think it runs in the family, like I said. Granted that Tom didn't exactly go around ripping out stitches for no good reason, but…./ He shook his head. /In the Avatar training program, there were a couple classes that were really nasty. Hard to start with, bad study materials, professors teaching from material even they didn't fully understand, all that stuff. Which, it wasn't the first class I'd taken like that—no one gets to the level we were at without at least a few of those kinds of courses, and you learn to deal with it—but in this case there were absolutely _no_ supplementary study materials beyond the manuals to work with. Nothing. No first-hand descriptions to read, no cross-university study groups, no similar studies from groups on Earth that we could extrapolate from…we all looked, but the material just didn't exist. Most of us were happy enough just to make it through those classes intact, but Tom? No way. He'd sit there studying for hours, _days_ sometimes, absolutely determined to get it all right. And damned if he didn't usually manage it. Drove the rest of us a little crazy sometimes. I saw the same expression on Jake's face when Grace and I were trying to jam basic Na'vi culture down his throat in the few hours we had between him being with you guys and needing to get actual sleep. He might not learn as fast as Tom did, but when he decides he's going to do something, he gets it done./

That much Tsu'tey had already observed. It had been extremely irritating when Jake had been trying to find a place among the Omaticaya and he'd wanted nothing more than for the Dreamwalker to go _away_.

Norm shook his head slightly, his expression turning serious. /You know, the only thing Tom ever let interrupt him when he got like that was vidcalls from Jake. Pesky things like eating and sleeping, forget it; grainy images and broken audio from a war zone…you couldn't _tear _his mobile out of his hands./

There was nothing Tsu'tey could say to that, and after a moment Norm shook his head again and continued speaking.

/Jake's a lot quieter than Tom was, though./ He paused. /Or maybe 'quieter' isn't the right word...he's a lot more reserved; that's probably a better way to put it. Once he knows you, he's got no problem talking, but he's more likely to sit back and watch a crowd that he doesn't know for awhile before saying anything than to strike up a conversation offhand. Tom was the opposite…he'd go into a roomful of strangers, walk up to the first person he saw, and just start talking./ He grinned. /That's what happened the first time we met./

Tsu'tey cocked his head slightly.

/It was the first day of Avatar training. They had this introductory gathering after we'd gone through the first round of paperwork…about fifty of us from maybe a dozen different fields, all standing around in this big old meeting hall. All of us were top of our classes at our previous universities, honors graduates, all that stuff. And we were all competing for the same two, _maybe_ three slots./

Tsu'tey remembered what Jake had said about the competition to be a Dreamwalker and hid a shake of his head. He'd decided awhile back that he didn't dislike Norm—the man was tolerable enough for the most part, and if he was occasionally a little foolish, his Na'vi really was excellent—but he still failed to see why scientists were the only ones considered.

/I guess there might have been a few people who knew each other from school or work-study or whatever,/ Norm continued, /but for the most part we were all total strangers, and with that kind of competition there wasn't a lot of incentive to get to know anyone. I mean, at least a third of the people there were going to be dropped for technical considerations, we all knew that. The Avatars are still fairly new technology, and any kind of issue with…./ He frowned for a minute and then shook his head. "Sorry, there aren't Na'vi words for some of this. If there was any issue with genetic recombination or how a person handled the neural feeds, that automatically put that person out of the running. Same as any psychological issues. Serious ones, anyway."

Tsu'tey had no idea what any of that actually meant, but it didn't seem to matter as Norm switched back to Na'vi.

/But beyond the technical considerations, the selection was based on how fast we could learn, what kind of advantage we would bring to the program, that kind of thing. Some of us—me included—had already done some preliminary training as part of our previous degrees, but that was no guarantee of anything./ He shook his head again. /If it hadn't been for the company recruiters wandering around, I would have grabbed a cheese plate and been back in my room five minutes after the whole thing started. But they were there, so everyone's standing around awkwardly, no one's talking _except_ those recruiters, and the rest of us are trying to figure out how soon we can escape without actually being the first person to leave./

/That is important?/ Tsu'tey guessed. He didn't understand why someone who wanted to leave a gathering wouldn't simply _leave_, but then, Sky People were odd.

"The word is 'politics'…I don't really think there's an equivalent in Na'vi. Which is a good thing, believe me." He shrugged. /Anyway, I'm about as uncomfortable as it's possible to be without actual physical pain being involved when all of a sudden this guy a couple feet away turns to me, sticks out a hand, and says, 'My name's Tom Sully. This is ridiculous; have you started looking at the botanical guides yet?' I just sort of stared at him for a minute and then shrugged and said that I had, he grinned, and within ten minutes he'd managed to round up half a dozen others—I don't know for sure, but knowing Tom he might have just grabbed the ones standing closest to us—we had a study group set up, and most of us were planning to meet the next morning for breakfast before classes./

"If it took Tommy ten minutes to organize _that_, he was having a slow day."

"Damn it, Jake, they are going to sedate you if they catch you out of bed again!" Norm exclaimed, twisting to glare at the man in the doorway. "And what about your shoulder? Don't tell me you pulled the stitches again."

Jake scowled, glancing down at a wrap that was pinning his arm to his side. "It's fine. It's just making it a pain in the ass to get around. Hey, Tsu'tey."

"You did not tell me that you were still injured when we went out," Tsu'tey said with a glare.

His scowl turned into a glare of his own. "I was fine. I'm _still _fine."

"Yeah, and what's your definition of 'fine'?" Norm demanded. "'One more good pull and I can open my own artery?'"


	7. It Builds

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_I got a question about whether Norm was going to be a major character in this story. I don't know about major—Tsu'tey and Jake are the main characters—but he's definitely got a part to play. And other characters will be involved when necessary too. I'm trying for mostly familiar ones, but there will be OCs to fill in the blanks._

_As far as how long this will be, honestly, your guess is as good as mine at this point. Normally when I start a long story I get it outlined at minimum and usually at least partly drafted out before I start posting, but this was only supposed to be a one-or-two shot so it didn't get any of that prep work. I'm working on it now (and I know where it's going to end up and some of the in-between scenes, at least), but it's very much backwards compared to how most of my longer stuff is done._

_/speech/=Na'vi_

_

* * *

_Tsu'tey wasn't sure how long the glaring match—a rather amusing glaring match from his perspective, although he doubted that either of the participants would have agreed—would have gone on between Jake and Norm if another man hadn't come up behind Jake and slapped his uninjured shoulder.

"Do you even _understand_ the meaning of 'stay put'?" the man demanded of Jake. "I mean, seriously, the little guy napping upstairs is less trouble than you."

"The little guy napping upstairs is like three," Jake snapped, tilting his head back to transfer his glare to the new arrival.

"He's four, actually, but that was kind of my point."

Tsu'tey didn't bother to suppress a snicker. Max, that was the man's name; he didn't actually seem to be a healer himself, but he'd helped the healers check Tsu'tey more than once knew a great deal about how Na'vi bodies functioned.

"You found him?" a woman's voice asked from somewhere down the hall, and then there was the sound of rapidly-approaching footsteps. She came to a halt beside Max, frowning at Jake. "Do you have _any_ idea how much of a pain in the ass you are?"

Now that he could see her, Tsu'tey recognized her easily enough as well. One of the Sky People healers who was also a Dreamwalker, she'd been very involved in the repairs done on his abdomen. Clara, Carla, something like that. Regardless, she was fully as fussy as any of the Na'vi healers—no doubt why she and his mother got along so well—which meant she was probably one of the ones responsible for sending him mush for dinner. He hissed quietly.

Her gaze shifted to him for a moment and then she heaved a sigh and looked over at Max. "Why don't we just lock both of them in here together? That way we can get snarled at and completely ignored all at the same time."

"It'll save a trip, anyway," Max agreed.

"I hate you all."

Tsu'tey agreed with Jake's general sentiment, although he wouldn't actually mind having a visitor for awhile. And Jake was a better option than any of the others currently standing around. Besides which, while he couldn't exactly claim that he'd never misled the healers with regards to the exact extent of his own injuries, he would not do so with one of his warriors, and he wasn't about to tolerate it being done to him.

"You need to eat that," the Sky Person healer said, interrupting Tsu'tey's thoughts as she once again turned her attention to him and jabbed one stubby finger at the tray he held. "Every bite; you need the minerals to rebuild that bone."

"Again," Max added.

"And as for you—" She glared down at Jake.

"If you want to hang out here for awhile, I'll grab you dinner," Norm interrupted with a sigh, before she could finish or Jake could say anything. "At least then we'll know where you _are_. And I need to pick up a tray for me, anyway; I'm going to be in the lab for the next couple hours sorting through that latest batch of samples."

A frown crossed Jake's face, the expression so fleeting that Tsu'tey nearly missed it, and then he looked up at Tsu'tey. "You mind company?"

"No."

He looked back at Norm. "That'd be great, thanks."

"No problem. Just…." He shook his head. "Swear you'll leave the sling on, all right?"

That got a grimace, but after a minute Jake nodded. "Fine."

Tsu'tey caught a murmur from Max—he wanted a sign in blood, which, whatever it actually _meant_, sounded decidedly disturbing—but the words were directed at Clara-Carla-whoever as the two of them trailed Norm out, and if more detail followed, he couldn't hear it.

Jake watched them go and then sighed and wheeled himself further into the room.

"You did not tell me that you were still injured when we went out," Tsu'tey repeated.

He waved a hand. "It was nothing important. Just remnants of whacking my head on a piece of the AMP when I tangled with that Titanothere."

Tsu'tey glared. "That's not the point."

Jake's eyes narrowed back into a glare as well. "Back off; I've already gotten reamed by half the people on this base. And a couple that aren't. Be glad you weren't at the radio yesterday afternoon when Mo'at and Neytiri came on."

That _was_ something to be grateful for, he decided after a minute, although he'd heard plenty about it from his mother and was expecting to have at least one unpleasant conversation the next time the two of them were at the base, so he figured things would even out fairly soon. And he didn't even consider relaxing his glare. While he didn't blame Jake for what had happened when they were out—the failure there was his for not noticing the viperwolf pack approaching sooner—Jake should not have hidden an injury. It would have been one thing to acknowledge it with the information that it would have no effect, but ignoring it completely…no. There was too much potential to put everyone at risk if something minor that no one knew about became something major at just the wrong time. He shook his head slightly. Jake was a warrior in his own right; he should _know_ that.

Unfortunately, he didn't seem inclined to admit it, and the silence dragged out.

"Mislead the healers as you please," Tsu'tey said after a few minutes, his voice dropping to the level of a snarl, "but you _don't_ do that to those you stand with in battle. Understood?" He would not back down on this.

Jake's glare held for another minute, but then his eyes flicked to the side and he gave a fractional nod.

It wasn't much, but Tsu'tey suspected that however minuscule it had been, that nod was as much of an acknowledgment as he was going to get. For one, Jake _was_ stubborn, and for another if he'd been fighting with the healers—and from the sounds of it everyone else—for the past two days, the likelihood of him being willing to admit out loud that he might have been wrong about anything was next to nothing. And since given his own temperament Tsu'tey doubted that he'd have managed even that half-nod if the situation was reversed, he dropped his glare as well.

Silence drew out between them again, but before it could become uncomfortable, Norm reappeared bearing two trays of food. He gave a quick nod to both of them and then offered one to Jake. "Dinner is served."

"Thanks, man."

Norm glanced back and forth between them for a moment. "Uh, you guys aren't planning another escape attempt, are you? Because seriously, neither of you are in any shape to get more than ten feet from the door. And Jake, they _will_ sedate you."

Jake's eyes flicked up to Tsu'tey's for a moment, and then he grinned slightly. "Relax, I'm pretty sure we're both planning to behave. At least for the time being." He took a quick bite and then looked back at Norm. "Hey, I thought you swapped with Marie for the early radio watch?"

"I did."

"Then why the hell are you starting a sample analysis _now_ when we both know it's going to have to run until o-dark-thirty?"

Norm shrugged awkwardly, looking away. "I just want to get it done, that's all."

Jake stared at him, and he shrugged again.

"I'm fine, Jake. Really."

"You sure? You're sleeping?"

"Every night. I promise."

Jake sighed. "All right, all right. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Tsu'tey offered as well, their words echoed by Norm a moment later as he headed back out into the hallway.

Jake watched him go, his expression unchanging, and after a moment Tsu'tey frowned as well.

"What is wrong?" That conversation had been _odd_, to say the least...why wouldn't Norm sleep?

He shook his head, pushing food around on his plate without actually taking another bite. "It's…maybe nothing. I don't know."

That was less than helpful, and Tsu'tey hissed quietly.

Jake looked up at him with a grin, although it faded almost immediately. "Sorry. Norm had a couple bad nights after the battle. Which, I kind of figured he would. I mean, aside from the fact that he was _in_ his Avatar when it died, he's a scientist, not a soldier. That kind of fighting—hell, fighting in general—it's not something that he's ever had to deal with before. I'm sure it's nothing that he ever _expected _to have to deal with. But his solution to the nightmares was to stop sleeping, which…." He shook his head. "That's not a good idea. That's _really_ not a good idea. I got him to talk to me before he hit the stims more than once, at least, and he was doing quite a bit better by the time you woke up, but the look on his face when you and I turned up blood covered…." He sighed. "You missed most of it when the healers hauled you off, but it was pretty much a total freak out. Especially when he got my blood all over his hands trying to help me."

"Freak out? And why would the stems of anything be involved?" At least when the Sky People healers used words that he wasn't familiar with, he understood that they were medical terms…Tsu'tey was starting to think that Jake just picked words at random to insert into his speech.

"Huh?" Jake shook his head. "Uh, saying he had a freak out means he got really upset. But I have no idea what stems you're talking about."

Tsu'tey glared. "_You_ said stems. He hit stems."

Jake's lips twitched. "I said stims. Stimulants. They're a way to keep yourself awake when you should be sleeping. Unfortunately they tend to have some nasty side effects, especially when you use them too much. And if you do use them too much, you can't always stop."

Tsu'tey grimaced. He knew of a few plants that could return one's alertness when necessary, but they too could cause unpleasantness if taken too often or in too large a dose.

"Anyway, I'm just a little worried about him. He seems to have calmed back down again, but I wish there was a real shrink here he could talk to. Uh, a shrink is a doctor who helps people who feel bad," he explained with a wave of his hand, before Tsu'tey could ask. "It's not really the polite term, but…." He shrugged. "Anyway, I'm marginally more qualified to listen to Norm than the science types if only because I've been there, but I haven't got any idea what I'm supposed to do _besides_ listen so I don't know if I'm any real help at all."

"And there is no...shrink?" He would think that one who could heal minds would be useful in this place. The only reason he wasn't more bothered than he was about having to stay on the base was that he knew it was temporary; if he'd had to stay in such unnatural surroundings for any great length of time he would be feeling very...trapped.

"Well, there is one, technically, or there is one until we can fit him on a shuttle, anyway, but unfortunately he's seriously pro-RDA, and I trust him about half as far as I can throw him. Which is actually farther than most of the scientists trust him; apparently he really pissed a couple of them off not long before Norm and I got here." He shrugged. "It doesn't exactly leave Norm a lot of options for people he can talk to about the battle."

After a moment of thought, Tsu'tey wondered if some of the Omaticaya hunters might be suffering some unpleasant aftereffects of the battle as well. It had not been mentioned to him, but he would understand if they did. "It's hard to go from hunting for food to a battle kill, even in defense. The loss of a life for no real purpose…." He shook his head and then frowned as Jake shook his head as well. "Is it different for Sky People?" Maybe it was; they certainly seemed to have a great deal more affinity for shedding blood than the Na'vi did.

"Well, it might not be, actually, but nobody hunts for food on Earth. At least, almost nobody—definitely not any where Norm and I are from—and they haven't for a long time."

"Then how do you get food?"

"From stores. Um…we trade for it, I guess you'd say." He shook his head. "That's not really the point, though. The point is that most people on Earth don't kill. Ever. There are some people—mostly soldiers like me—that do, but generally we're the exception, not the rule." He shook his head again. "I know there was some basic weapons training included as part of the overall Avatar training program, but from what Tommy said it was more gun safety than anything else." He snorted. "The RDA security guys were supposed to protect them, after all. However badly _that_ worked out. But the only thing Norm ever shot before that battle was a practice target."

Tsu'tey found himself at a loss for words. Among the Na'vi, there was training, rituals…_rites_…when one became a hunter. Took a life for the first time. And while living as they did, it was important for all to be able to protect and feed themselves in the forest, it was a relatively small number of Na'vi that chose to continue on to the level of warrior after they'd become hunters. Training became far more intense, more than most were suited for, and there were other paths to choose in life. Healer, teacher, singer, artist, craftsman…those and many others that were just as important for the clan to survive and prosper.

It was true that as many hunters as warriors, at least among the Omaticaya, had joined the battle against the Sky People, but that was not normally how things were done. Not how things would have been done if the circumstances hadn't been so extraordinary. He'd seen Jake showing Norm how to use the guns—had listened for a few moments, although he'd refused a gun when Jake had offered it; he had better sense than to go into battle with a weapon that he neither knew nor trusted—but it had never occurred to him that that would be all the training that Norm had ever had. "He should not have fought."

"Yeah, and if I'd been able to come up with a good argument to keep him out of it, he wouldn't have. But I couldn't. Not one that he'd have listened to, anyway. Especially not after the colonel killed Grace." He shrugged slightly. "And realistically, we needed all the guns we could get."

Tsu'tey couldn't exactly disagree with that assessment; not when they'd come so close to losing. When they would have lost without Eywa's assistance. But he could understand now why Jake seemed so worried about Norm. "What are you going to do?"

Another shrug. "Do like I did before, I guess. Watch him. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." He paused. "Which, considering my track record of late, probably sounds a little ridiculous, but he's not Tommy. I can't force it out of him. And like I said, I might be worrying for nothing—he _was_ doing better, and maybe he is just really involved in tracking this new set of samples." He paused again, giving a half-grin. "Whatever they are. He is a scientist, after all."

Tsu'tey snorted.

Jake shook his head and then sighed. "Just...if you notice anything…off...about him, let me or one of the docs know, would you? I know Max is pretty worried too."

"Of course." Although he wasn't sure what he would be looking for in a Sky Person. Norm had seemed fine to him earlier.

Jake gave another shake of his head and then took another bite of his meal before changing the subject. "So how's your leg, anyway?"

"It's been rebroken, as I expected. Minor damage to the skin as well, but nothing that won't heal." It turned out that most of _that_ damage had been done by the brace when he'd fallen, which wasn't precisely a consolation, but it was certainly better than bone coming through again. "I'm confined to bed for at another week, though, before they'll put the brace back on and let me try walking again."

"That's lousy."

His opinion of the situation as well, and he nodded and then picked up his own tray from where he'd put it down. If he didn't finish his meal, he'd hear about it for certain, and mush was bad enough warm that he didn't want to wait for it to cool entirely. "How badly are you injured? Truthfully."

Jake's scowl reappeared for a moment, and then he shrugged. "It's my shoulder that's causing the trouble; the rest of the cuts are just irritating. The docs taped them shut, and they should be all healed up in another couple days. And my head is fine now."

"Norm said your shoulder would heal if you would just give it time. Why don't you?"

"Because it's not that easy."

"Why not?" It seemed simple enough to _him_.

"I need my arms. It's not—I can't—" He shook his head, looking away. "I can get around okay in the chair with only one arm. It's kind of a pain since the damn thing likes to swerve, but it's doable. But otherwise?" Another shake of his head. "That's how I pulled my stitches the first time; I was trying to get some rack, lost my balance getting out of the chair, and fell."

"Explain 'rack.'" Yet another word that didn't belong where it was used.

Jake finally looked back at him, grinning slightly. "Sorry. More military speak. In the marines, we called our bunks racks. 'Get some rack' means 'get some sleep.'"

Tsu'tey shook his head. "Sky People make no sense." If he meant 'get some sleep,' there was no reason not to _say_ 'get some sleep.'

Jake seemed to find the comment more amusing than offensive. "Yeah, I've noticed that too on occasion. Anyway, at least when I don't have the sling on, I've got a chance of catching myself if I start to lose my balance as opposed to just ending up in a heap on the floor, but without the sling I can overextend and tear the stitches that way—which is what happened the last two times—so…well, it's pretty much a no-win situation all around."

"You could ask for help."

Jake's expression hardened. "There's some shit I can't do anymore. That I could—that I didn't even _think_ about—that now I can't. I don't like it, but I deal. But things like getting into and out of bed that I _can_ do, I'm not about to ask for help with. I'll get it sorted out eventually."

Before or after he injured himself, Tsu'tey wanted to ask, but since it already appeared to be 'after' he saw no point. "Stubborn."

"No argument there."

* * *

Tsu'tey studied the device in Jake's hand and hissed quietly. It was the strangest looking map he'd ever seen—he was able to see through it, in a fashion, and the images moved around when they were touched which had annoyed him to no end when Jake had first shown it to him—but the images that represented mines were clear enough.

"I _can _disarm them, but it's not exactly a quick process," Jake said with a shake of his head, using his thumb to make the image 'zoom' out to a level at which they could see the full spread. "With that many, it'll be more like a few days than a few hours to get them all done. And while we can probably avoid the Titanotheres, I don't really want to have to fight off a pack of viperwolves every time we go out."

He wasn't the only one, and Tsu'tey wasn't about to suggest that any scientists come with them to help. They'd just get in the way, especially now that he understood that none of them were even _hunters_. An uninjured Omaticaya warrior would probably be enough of a deterrent—two would certainly be, even with a large pack—but with so much still to do at the new Hometree, he couldn't justify summoning anyone to the base for that length of time. Not yet, anyway. He sighed. There had to be something they could do besides torch the field, though.

The door swung open before he could think of anything useful, and he glanced up to see his mother. He straightened automatically. /I See you./

/I See you,/ she returned, and then scowled at Jake. "'ou, go. Carla want."

"Joy," he muttered under his breath, and then, louder, "Yes, ma'am. She's upstairs? Um…." He paused, frowning slightly. /Up next level?/

/Yes./

He handed the map to Tsu'tey. "Might as well hang onto that; maybe you'll see something that I've been missing." With a shake of his head, he leaned down off the bunk, reaching for the far arm of his chair with the arm that wasn't pinned to his chest.

Tsu'tey hissed and set the map aside, catching him under the arms and lifting him down off the edge of the bunk and into the chair before Jake could protest.

Jake glared up at him. "I could have done that _myself_."

/Moron./ It was true that Jake had managed to lift himself without assistance onto the edge of Tsu'tey's bunk earlier. It had been the only way they could both see the map easily, and the way he'd done it had been a rather impressive balancing act, all things considered. Not one that Tsu'tey was at all certain that he could have duplicated using only one limb. However, it was perfectly obvious that the chair wasn't stable enough for him to reverse the act, and Tsu'tey didn't see that falling to the floor was an improvement over accepting assistance. Especially if it had led to injuring his arm again. "Your balance was off at that angle, and if you get hurt again in here—especially falling off _my_ bunk—the healers will be as annoyed with me as you." He'd been fed mush again for breakfast, and he didn't plan to give them any more reasons to feel vengeful.

Jake's glare didn't fade as he rearranged his legs and then rolled himself backwards towards the door. "I will wheel over your tail."

"You will probably try," Tsu'tey acknowledged. He would remember that when he was able to walk around again.

His mother's glare darkened as she glanced back and forth between them, and Jake winced and held up his hand when she caught his eye. "Sorry. Sorry. I'm gone." He swiveled his chair around and rolled out the open door, letting it swing shut behind him.

/That is foolish,/ his mother said, stepping closer and removing the dressing on his leg.

/What?/ He craned his head, but from what he could see, his leg didn't seem to be any worse. He hadn't done anything that could make it worse.

/Jakesully is not a friend you should make./

Tsu'tey opened his mouth and then shut it again, staring. His mother had been reprimanding him for his flares of temper for his entire _life_. Up to and including when he'd picked a fight with Jake in front of the entire clan. Oh, she'd sympathized with his feelings, she'd made that clear enough, but she had _not_ been happy with the way he'd acted on them, and he suspected that he'd have heard a great deal more about it if things hadn't turned so wrong so quickly afterward. He hadn't really thought much about her opinion of the friendship that had been growing between them here—and he did accept that it was friendship at this point, even if he still wasn't overly fond of most of the other Sky People—but if he had, he'd have thought that she'd be pleased with it. And she hadn't said anything against it before the fight with the viperwolf pack, nor had she when she'd been called back to work on his leg.

He frowned slightly. Of course, it was entirely possible that she hadn't _known_ that they were becoming friends before then, and when she'd last come here she'd been too busy complaining about his idiocy in going out injured in the first place to waste any time commenting on the company he'd been keeping a the time. Still, it seemed oddly out of character for her. /I don't understand./

She shook her head, looking up from her examination of his wound. /Do you honestly believe that the friendship you make here be enough to withstand the challenge when he returns to his Dreamwalker body?/

/What challenge?/ The question got her best you-are-being-a-fool glare, and he hid a wince and remained silent.

/He _mated_ Neytiri,/ she said after a moment, her words drawn out with exaggerated patience. /She will be Tsahik, and he will challenge for leadership. He has the right to do so even now./ She shook her head. /I know you, my son. You may win, but having to face his challenge will hurt you./ Another slight headshake, and she looked back down at his leg, probing gently. /There is no point in setting yourself up for sorrow./


	8. Qualifications

_Author's note—I took some liberties with the setup of Marine units in this chapter…I'm assuming in 140-ish years, there will probably be some changes._

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_

* * *

_

His mother pronounced 'more rest,' to Tsu'tey's absolute lack of surprise, and then he was left alone staring at the ceiling. He shook his head, tail twitching absently against the top of the bunk

He didn't want to fight Jake. It didn't require any great amount of thought; he didn't want to fight his friend. Certainly not when there was a good chance that one of them would end up seriously injured. And, honestly, the idea felt a little absurd anyway. He knew perfectly well that Jake was a Dreamwalker—he'd fought alongside him in that Dreamwalker body, after all—but somehow, somewhere in his head, he'd separated them into two different people. Toruk Makto…Tsu'tey _respected_ him, certainly, but he still wasn't entirely sure that he _liked_ him. And while the Jake that was his friend was a warrior in his own right, he was also just a broken Sky Person. One who didn't seem to recognize that the fact that he was broken was a limitation, maybe—and Tsu'tey had yet to see it stop him, which was also worthy of respect—but the idea of the two of them fighting was more than slightly ridiculous.

Tsu'tey shook his head again, more sharply this time. Whatever bizarre tricks his mind seemed determined to play, Jake was Toruk Makto, and it would be him in his Dreamwalker body that Tsu'tey faced. Unless he wanted to cede leadership of the Omaticaya without issue rather than meeting the challenge.

He snorted. That was technically an option, maybe, but it didn't require any thought either. He wouldn't do it. He couldn't do it. First of all because he'd never backed down from a fight in his entire life and wasn't about to start now, and second of all, and far more important than his pride, because even if Jake had the _right_ to challenge him, Tsu'tey didn't think that he was the best choice for Olo'eyktan. Jake had only spent a few months among the Omaticaya; he didn't even know as much about their songs and traditions as a small child. Nor had he spent almost all of his adult life observing Eytukan, learning how a clan leader behaved, acting as his second when he became capable…Tsu'tey wasn't sure _what_ Jake's qualifications were aside from being a fierce warrior. And while the ability to fight was important, it was hardly the only thing required of a leader.

That led to other things that he didn't want to think about, though—things that he'd been trying not to think about since Hometree had fallen—and he sighed, staring at a spot on the far wall. In truth, he wasn't sure how qualified _he_ was either. He had no plans to admit it to anyone else, but while he knew he was a good leader for the ikran makto, and Eytukan had indicated that he was pleased when Tsu'tey had stepped into the role of second in other matters as well, there was still so much he didn't know. Things like diplomacy, trade negotiations with other clans…his temper didn't lend itself easily to such tasks, and he'd expected to have more—much more—time to learn before the roll of Olo'eyktan became his. And even once it had, it was traditional for the previous leader to act as the new leader's second until he chose to step down, giving the new leader an advisor who understood implicitly the task he was undertaking. Now…well, Tsu'tey was hardly going to ignore the advisors that Eytukan had gathered to him, but none of them had ever been clan leaders. Especially settling in at a new Hometree, there were things he would have to do, decisions that he would have to make….

He shifted slightly and then gave up on the idea of lying back and relaxing, pushing himself into a sitting position. He would never shirk his duty, but he had never expected to find this weight on his shoulders so soon. And while there had been clan leaders younger than he was in the past, given the dangers of the world they lived in, there hadn't been many of them. And none had been _much_ younger.

He frowned. It was…possible…actually, that Jake was more qualified than he appeared. Oh, he definitely didn't know the history of the Omaticaya, or even of the Na'vi in general, but Tsu'tey had never asked specifically what his training _had_ been. He was fairly certain that no one had. Eytukan had said when Neytiri had first begun to train Jake that it would be useful to understand the thinking of the Sky People warriors, but at the time Tsu'tey had been more infuriated than anything else, too eager for Jake to fail to seriously consider the idea. And as far as he knew, nothing had come of it since.

Still, thinking about Jake's actions now, it would not come as a great surprise if he'd been learning to be a clan leader on his world. Although…. Tsu'tey shook his head slightly. No. Or at least while it was possible, it was also highly unlikely. Jake was no coward; if he had had such responsibility, he wouldn't have abandoned it. Unless being broken had disqualified him, which…well, that could be true, actually. And the apparent age of a Dreamwalker bore no relation to his actual age—his mother counted Clara-Carla-whoever as a knowledgeable healer with years of experience fully on par with her own, despite the fact that her Dreamwalker body appeared little older than he was—which meant that Jake could be older and have considerably more training than anyone had realized. Tsu'tey had assumed from the way that Jake spoke and acted that they had approximately the same number of years, but he was hardly an expert in reading Sky Person features so there was no guarantee that that was the case.

He started to push himself up off the bunk and then stopped with a hiss as he remembered that he wasn't yet allowed to be up and putting weight on his leg. He wasn't yet _capable_ of putting weight on his leg. His lips creased in a silent snarl. It was foolish to sit here pondering Jake's potential qualifications when the simplest way to find out was to go and ask, and yet until Jake returned, he had no choice but to do anything else.

* * *

"Tsu'tey? You awake?"

Tsu'tey twisted to snarl at Jake. His mind had been going in circles for the past day, far too unsettled to let him get any real rest, and _now _Jake showed up? Would it have killed him to stay out of trouble with the healers so he'd have been able to visit again yesterday after Tsu'tey's mother had left?

"We can go away, if you'd rather be alone," Jake offered, pausing in the doorway.

Tsu'tey was about to snap at him, when he realized that 'we' wasn't Jake and Norm—or even Jake and a healer—but Jake and Kastri. Kastri had been floating suspended in one of the tanks the last time Tsu'tey had seen him, but now he was balanced with his toes wrapped around one arm of Jake's wheelchair and a hand in Jake's hair, and although one arm and leg still bore bandages, he looked cheerful enough. Tsu'tey relaxed his expression and focused on the child. /I See you. What are you doing?/

/He _rolls_,/ Kastri announced, the novelty obviously overriding his manners. What manners a child of four had, anyway. /I get to have a ride./

"My new friend is headed home today," Jake said. "Was getting a little bored while the healers were talking with his parents, so Carla suggested that the two of us 'run and play' for awhile."

Tsu'tey shifted his attention to Jake. "How old are you?"

Jake stared at him for a minute. "Uh…too old to be told to run and play?" He shrugged his uninjured shoulder, and Tsu'tey noticed that the wrap on the other looked fresh. "Twenty-two. Well, technically twenty-eight, I guess, but I still say those six years asleep don't really count since I can't remember them. And that's Earth years; I'm not sure what it translates to here. Why do you ask?"

"Because I wanted to know." Twenty-two meant that he'd been right and there was no appreciable age difference between them.

Jake stared at him for a minute longer and then shook his head and wheeled closer to Tsu'tey's bunk, letting Kastri scramble up beside Tsu'tey. Tsu'tey winced in automatic sympathy as that scramble resulted in a kick that had to have been painful, and Jake caught his eye and grinned slightly. "There is exactly one advantage to not being able to feel anything below my waist."

Tsu'tey shook his head at that—whatever healers might say, in his opinion, there was such a thing as looking _too much_ on the positive side—and then grabbed Kastri before he could fling himself back at Jake. While he could understand that sitting on a bunk was not nearly so much fun as being wheeled around, he was also reasonably sure that even a young Na'vi would be heavy enough to knock Jake over if he hit him with enough force. /_Carefully_. He is not so much bigger than you./

Jake rolled his eyes—apparently he'd understood more of that than Tsu'tey had expected—and then he grinned at Kastri. /Want try roll self?/

Kastri cocked his head.

/Move./ Jake gestured for him to move sideways and then braced his one working hand on Tsu'tey's bunk, lifting and twisting himself to sit on the edge in a duplicate of the maneuver he'd used yesterday. He caught Kastri's eye and gestured at the chair, and the four-year old squealed and launched himself into it. Which, predictably, sent it rolling rapidly backwards, drawing another happy squeal. "That should keep him busy for a little while," Jake said.

"Why not take him where he can run?"

"Well, I think the corridors kind of scare him, and there aren't too many places on the base big enough that don't have a bunch of sensitive equipment in them. I let any of that stuff get damaged and the scientists will kill me. And most of the rest of the larger rooms have some fairly dangerous things lying around, or at least thing that would be dangerous to a kid who doesn't know what not to touch, anyway. There are weapons in the hanger, weight machines in the gym, God only knows what left in the barracks…. Thought about taking him outside—if nothing else, there's the obstacle course he could play on—but if he took it into his head to run off, there's not a lot I could do. And there's no way in hell I'm telling a parent that I managed to misplace their kid."

That was understandable enough.

"Besides, at least you'll understand whatever he says. He's lost me a couple times with the speed he goes, and I'd rather not accidentally agree to let him fling himself off the roof or something."

Tsu'tey snorted at that. "Your language skills are—"

He was interrupted by Kastri's yelp as he finally hit the chair too hard and sent it tipping over backwards, but the child bounced to his feet a moment later and lifted it back upright.

"Will that break?" Tsu'tey asked. It wouldn't do for Kastri to get reinjured—as unlikely as that was given that he would fall less than half his height at the absolute worst—nor would it be wise to allow Jake's only real means of transportation to be destroyed.

"Nah, it's pretty damn sturdy. And yes, my language skills still suck. Not really news." He shook his head. "I need to get Norm drilling me again."

Tsu'tey shook his head as well, but there was no real amusement in giving an insult that had already been acknowledged, so…. "Obstacle course? This is a physical challenge, correct?"

"Yeah, in theory it's a bunch of things to climb, jump, crawl through, all that stuff, set up one after the other, and the idea is to get through them as fast as you can."

Na'vi warriors used similar exercises to train and test themselves, and Tsu'tey cocked his head. "What do you mean, 'in theory'?"

"The one they've got here isn't exactly what I'd call a challenge." He shook his head. "It had to be the scientists that put it together, because if my legs worked, I think I could run most of it in _this_ body."

Tsu'tey snorted at that, but it was an acceptable lead-in to the rest of the questions he wanted to ask, and after a quick glance to make sure that Kastri was still amusing himself with Jake's wheelchair, he looked back down at Jake. "Sky People often use these for training?"

"Yeah, they're real big on them in basic, and when you're on a base rather than in the field, you're kind of limited in what you can do, so most bases tend to build them in if they can find enough room. I mean, I like running well enough, and I still did plenty of that in downtime, but I always thought obstacle courses were a lot more fun. Especially when there were a few people to compete against."

"What other training is there?"

"What, in basic?" Jake twisted to look at him curiously, but when Tsu'tey nodded—not that he was at all sure what 'basic' was, but if it involved Sky People warriors it was as good a place to start as any—he shrugged again and then turned back to keep an eye on Kastri as he began to speak. "Well, there's firearms, hand-to-hand, strategy and tactics, general first aid, bunch of military code stuff, a _lot_ of physical conditioning, that kind of thing. Then after that there's different training depending on the field you go into, where you end up assigned, that kind of thing."

"What do you mean?" Among the Omaticaya, all hunters could use a bow and knife, ride an ikran and pa'li…there were some who were better at certain things than others, but all were capable. Unless Jake was speaking of the differentiation of life paths _after_ one became a hunter, which made slightly more sense. Even if Sky People didn't hunt.

Jake shrugged. "Well, there are a bunch of tests you have to take before they let you join up. Some are obvious: medical quals, a psych eval, general intelligence, that kind of thing, but then there are also a set that are supposed to help determine what MOS—uh, specialty—is best for you." He gave a quick chuckle. "Believe it or not, the recruiter I worked with actually wanted me to take the foreign language aptitude exam. It's…I'd been talking to him on and off for a couple months, which meant that Tommy had talked to him a couple times too. Not that he had any interest in joining the Marines, but we tended to follow each other around most of the time so it was pretty much bound to happen. Anyway, the recruiter knew that Tommy had finished the foreign language track in school, so he wanted me to go ahead and try and see how well I did."

Tsu'tey frowned. "Stop. Explain. There is more than one language on your planet?" There was no reason that a large number of Sky People would care about learning Na'vi, which meant that that was the only sensible explanation, but the idea seemed strange, at best. There were other _dialects_ among the Na'vi—he'd heard many at the clan gatherings and could recognize some of the more distant clans by their accents alone—and colloquialisms definitely varied from region to region, but the base language was the same.

"Oh, yeah. There's a lot of them; that's why they need people who either already speak or are able to quickly learn other languages." He paused. "Actually, I bet several of the scientists here are bilingual. Or I guess it would be trilingual. Multilingual. Whatever; they probably speak English and Na'vi _and_ at least one other human language as well." He shook his head. "Anyway, I gave in and took the test like he wanted, and…." He shook his head again, and Tsu'tey could hear the amusement in his voice. "Turns out I'm not any better with foreign languages on Earth than I am with Na'vi. Which was no shock to me or Tommy, but the letter that pretty much said that if they let me within ten miles of the Foreign Language Institute I'd set their program back a good fifty years was kind of hilarious."

Tsu'tey snickered.

"Anyway, I went infantry and ended up in First Recon, which is where I'd wanted to be anyway. It's a spec ops unit—special operations—so I got to do a bunch of different stuff."

"Like what?"

"Well, drops into enemy territory for one reason or another—intel, rescue, sabotage, whatever—CANGA operations, I've been on guns on just about everything that flies at one point or another…." He shrugged. "We stayed busy."

He remembered Jake mentioning drops before—that was how he'd been broken—but, "What is a kanga?"

"CANGA. Um…combat armored naval something-that-starts-with-a-G-that-isn't-gun AMP. They're combat mecha; basically the _real_ war machine version of the AMP." He snorted. "The word 'naval' is only in there because the squids got the amphibious version first, and they like to put their name on things. We were way better with them in actual combat."

Tsu'tey wasn't sure what that meant, but it didn't seem to matter much as Jake continued speaking.

"I was in for about four years before I got injured, and there were a couple times where we got stretched pretty thin down where I was, so you learned to do whatever needed doing." He paused. "Huh. You know, I would not have come up with that."

Tsu'tey looked up to find Jake's wheelchair on its side and Kastri sitting on the upper wheel spinning himself around in circles, grinning madly. "Is that safe?"

"Should be. I've got the frame locked so it's not going to collapse, anyway. Tell him not to stick his fingers _through_ the wheel, would you? There's a good chance he'll get a nasty pinch."

Tsu'tey did so and then returned his attention to Jake. "Your clan was _always_ at war then?" He supposed that that explained Jake's skills, but it had been generations since the Na'vi had made war amongst themselves. Even the mostly-harmless raids between young warriors of different clans had dwindled to next to nothing after the arrival of the Sky People, at least among the clans nearest the Omaticaya and the Sky People's compound, and the idea of fighting—seriously fighting—continuously for four _years_…. He shook his head. Granted that there had been tension between the Na'vi and Sky People for considerably longer than that span of time, but aside from a few isolated incidents, it hadn't been open warfare.

"Huh?"

Jake had twisted to look back at him, and Tsu'tey frowned. "You speak of fighting, training, war machines…."

"Yeah. I was a Marine."

Jake still looked confused, and Tsu'tey's frowned deepened. Jake had said that before—Marine—but…. "You said that you were a warrior of the Jarhead clan." Which he still thought was a stupid name, but that wasn't really relevant at the moment. "When you speak of fighting, you must have been fighting with some—_what?_" Tsu'tey's frown turned to a scowl. Jake was definitely trying not to laugh, and he did _not_ like being laughed at.

"Sorry, but that was pretty much me making shit up as I went along," Jake said with a shake of his head. "Jarhead's just another word for Marine. It's…." He shook his head again, turning back to check Kastri for a moment before shifting so he could look at Tsu'tey more easily. "Sky People don't divide themselves into clans, exactly, we do it by countries." He paused. "Which I guess you could consider really, really _big_ clans but that doesn't really describe things very well. I don't know; I'm probably not the best guy to talk to about this considering that I spent most of civics class playing video games on my tablet with the guy behind me—at least when Tommy wasn't bitching me out about it, anyway—but basically there are five different warrior groups associated with my particular country. Giant clan. Whatever. Anyway, four of those groups do end up fighting warrior groups from other countries on a pretty continuous basis, so after I joined…yeah, that was what I did." He snorted. "Marines tend to end up on the sharp end of the stick—the first to hit combat—so I fought quite a bit, actually."

"Why did you choose to join that group, then?"

Jake shrugged. "Because they're the best."

Tsu'tey opened his mouth and then shut it again. That was actually the most understandable thing that he'd heard in this entire conversation. He went silent for a moment, turning his attention to Kastri who now appeared to be trying to figure out how to take Jake's wheelchair apart. It didn't seem to be going well, and Jake didn't look at all concerned, so he returned to the other questions that he'd wanted to ask. "Is there leadership?"

Jake had turned to watch Kastri as well, but his head swiveled back around when Tsu'tey spoke. "In the _Marines_? Uh, yeah, they're big on that kind of thing. Especially since we've all got guns and things that go 'boom.'"

Tsu'tey scowled. "I meant _training_. Did you receive leadership training? Experience?"

"Well, I'm not exactly the OCS—command school—type, but I ran a fireteam and then a squad for awhile. Uh, a fireteam's a four or eight man team depending on the situation; where I was we usually ran eight just because we needed the commo and the extra guns. And a squad is between three and six fireteams depending on the situation; again, where I was we ran on the high end. I got the assignment pretty much on the grounds that I wasn't _dead_, but it turned out I was pretty good at it."

"Because you weren't dead?" Tsu'tey had to ask. In terms of numbers, it seemed fairly equivalent to leading the fighting core of ikran makto among the Omaticaya, albeit probably with somewhat more…intense…experiences given the Sky People weapons.

Jake shook his head. "Well, generally a sergeant leads a squad. Sergeant…it's a rank higher than what I was." He waved a hand. "Doesn't really matter; basically I'd been running one of the fireteams for awhile when our sergeant got promoted to platoon leader, and the next three sergeants they transferred into our squad all managed to get themselves dead in their first firefights." He paused. "Well, actually two died in firefights, one stepped on a damn mine that the scanners _told us_ was there twenty minutes before the shooting even started. Still not sure about that one. Anyway, since I'd been running 2IC—second in command—for all three of them, and since I was the one who ended up finishing those missions after they got dead, the brass gave up on bringing in any more and gave me the job permanently. At least up until I got shot." He paused, again giving Kastri another glance before look back up at Tsu'tey. "What's with the twenty questions? I don't mind answering, but I'm curious."

The device on Jake's wrist beeped before Tsu'tey could respond.

"Jake, you there?" It was a woman's voice, but not one that Tsu'tey recognized immediately.

"Hey, Marie. Are they ready to go?" Jake asked the device.

"Yep. Bring him up, would you?"

"All right, on our way." He looked over at Tsu'tey. "Time for the kid to go home, and then I've got radio watch. I'll stop by again at dinner time."

That would give him time to organize any more questions that he wanted to ask, and he nodded slightly.

Jake turned to Kastri. /You go home bring chair please?/

Kastri stared, and Tsu'tey shook his head. At this rate, Jake was going to set the Na'vi language back several _hundred_ years. /Please bring his chair over here so he can take you back to your parents and you can go home./

From the look on Jake's face, he couldn't decide whether to be annoyed or thank him, although when Tsu'tey dropped him down into the chair without bothering to wait for Jake to do anything stupid first, it changed to definite annoyance.

"I can do that _myself_."

"And you can get re-injured in front of the small child. Stop being foolish."

"Stop being an ass."

* * *

"Don't shoot the messenger, hey brother?" Jake greeted.

Tsu'tey looked up from the map in his hands. Which, it turned out, could show much more than the minefield; Max had stopped by to pick up something from one of the wall cabinets, had seen him looking at it, and had shown him how to 'scroll' to other territories all around the area. It wasn't 'real time'—whatever that meant—but it was rather fascinating. He could get almost as much detail from the device as he could from overflying on an ikran. Albeit with considerably less enjoyment during the process, but at least it had given him something else to occupy his mind.

Nothing Jake had said during their conversation earlier had indicated that he had any more experience than Tsu'tey did, nothing that might make him a better choice for Olo'eykan, and although he did have a few more questions, Tsu'tey fully expected to be left dealing with the fact that he was going to have to fight his friend. Still, he hadn't planned to do it _now_—he would ask the other questions first—and he frowned. "Why would I shoot anyone?"

"Because you aren't going to like what I'm about to tell you. Hell, _I_ don't like what I'm about to tell you, and I knew it was coming." He handed up Tsu'tey's tray and then rolled backwards slightly—enough that both of their necks were at comfortable angles—to start on his own.

"Explain. And you needn't worry; my bow has been confiscated for the time being." He grimaced. Another downside to having a healer for a mother; he'd be lucky to get it back before he forgot how to shoot.

Jake grinned slightly, although his expression returned to seriousness on short order. "They think they've finally figured out how to rig enough sleep pods to take all of the…uncooperative…base personnel back to Earth in a single trip, which means we won't have to keep a couple hundred people locked up here until the next ship arrives. Which, yay, because I was _not_ looking forward to the logistics of that one. It'll take some time to set everything up, but the shuttle's probably going to be coming down to start picking up more people at the beginning of next week, and then it'll take a couple trips before they're done. Say a week, ten days on the outside."

"Why wouldn't you like that? Why wouldn't _I_ like that?" Well, personally, he would prefer that _all_ the Sky People left—with the exception of Jake, but he was Omaticaya now so he didn't really count, anyway—but he understood that it would not be safe for Norm and a few of the other scientists to return to their own planet since they had openly sided with the Na'vi against the Sky People. Norm was the only one who had actively fought, but he could accept the others as well. But then a few other scientists had wanted to stay and continue their studies, and there were some support personnel that had agreed to remain with them as well…those he was not so pleased with, but Mo'at had agreed before he had awoken, and he would not contradict her.

"Because you guys are going to need to figure out what message to send along with them. I know Mo'at and Neytiri have been talking about it with some of the leaders of the other clans, but…well, this is the part you aren't going to like. 'Don't come back' isn't a viable option."

Tsu'tey's lips creased in a snarl. "Why _not_?" It summed up how he felt perfectly accurately.


	9. Unpleasant Nights

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_/speech/=Na'vi_

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* * *

_Tsu'tey stared up at the ceiling. He didn't know what to do. He knew what he _wanted_ to do, but there was the distinct…possibility…that Jake had been right when he'd said that it wasn't an option so….

'You have something they want. They aren't just going to go away.'

He shook his head. At first he had sneered at Jake's words. The Na'vi had won the war; what _else_ were the Sky People going to do? Especially when they were being forcibly escorted to the shuttles and off Pandora.

Except that, as Jake had pointed out, the war between the Sky People and the Na'vi had really consisted of only a single battle. Even in the old Na'vi history songs that Tsu'tey had learned growing up, wars had almost always consisted of many battles; often hands upon hands before any sort of peace was reached. And for the Sky People, even that was apparently a low number. Jake had said that the battle in which he'd been broken had been part of a fight that had been going on since before his _birth_. And it was by no means the only one.

Jake had also pointed out that the Sky People had the ships to come back whenever they liked, and the Na'vi had nothing that could stop them from landing. Even Eywa herself could not simply expel them from the surface of the planet. And he seemed certain that they would be back; even if they were willing to accept the results of the battle. Apparently this Unobtanium substance was too important for them to do otherwise. Tsu'tey didn't really understand its use, and privately he found that name nearly as dumb as 'Jarhead' clan, but there had been no humor in Jake's voice when he had told Tsu'tey that the Sky People also had weapons far, far nastier than anything that the Na'vi had yet seen if they decided to use them to force the issue. To make that single, horrible battle into part of a real war. Which Jake was also certain that they'd do, if it came to that.

Tsu'tey hissed in the darkness. It wasn't _fair_. Which, of course, was a foolish thing to expect of life—there was balance on Pandora, yes, but did the Sturmbeast taken in the hunt complain that it was not fair that _he_ was killed for food rather than the next in the herd?—but that did not keep the thought from returning. The Sky People had their own world; why couldn't they sate their ridiculous appetites for destruction there and leave his alone?

His hiss turned into a snarl as he remembered those weapons that Jake had described. More huge gunships, like the Dragon—'and how well do you think the ikrans would have fared if they had faced a fleet of _those_ at the Tree of Souls?' Jake had asked—that he already had experience with, but there had been many others that could be brought to bear in a worst-case scenario as well.

When Tsu'tey had expressed disbelief about the capabilities of some of those other weapons, given that while the Sky People might be able to harness the heart of fire when they wished, he knew firsthand that they were not gods, Jake had stared at him for a long moment, his face blank. And then he'd activated one of the screens in the room. The images that had followed… from Tsu'tey's point of view, it had been an unending parade of horror. He'd seen guns that fired sheer _walls_ of bullets, so many that it looked like a stream of water emerging. A stream that could cut a man in half as cleanly as any blade. He'd seen thrown explosives that started flames that wouldn't go out no matter how much water they were doused with. He'd seen mines like the ones surrounding the base, and more mines that spat pieces of metal rather than fire, tearing anyone around to bits. And there had been at least a dozen other weapons besides, weapons that Tsu'tey could not have imagined even in his worst dreams.

Jake hadn't flinched from showing him the kind of injuries those weapons caused either. Some inflicted injuries fully as bad as his own; some were even worse; and with a few there was no chance of survival at all. Tsu'tey would be the first to admit that he had no love for Sky People, but even he could not remain unaffected by that much misery.

And those were just the weapons that a single man could carry. There were other weapons as well: the larger gunships, the CANGAs Jake had spoken of earlier that were far more heavily armed and armored than the AMPs that had so decimated Horse Clan, 'jets' which flew faster and struck harder than any ikran—or even Toruk—could match, 'rock-its' that could be fired from so far distant that there was no guarantee that the Na'vi would even be able to _find_ their attackers, never mind reach them….

He wasn't sure what had disturbed him more, honestly; weapons like that whose capabilities were so far beyond anything the Na'vi could match, or Jake's blunt admission that he'd already seen them all in action. Had _used_ a good number of them.

Tsu'tey had been angry, then, mostly because he hadn't known what else to be. He'd accepted that Jake was a Sky Person warrior, and had fought _as_ a Sky Person warrior, but the idea of using weapons like that, of so simply _accepting_ the use of weapons like that…. Jake had taken his snarls and insults without twitching, though, simply repeating that telling the Sky People to go away and never come back would just bring things to a head that much faster.

'You have something they want,' Jake's voice echoed in his head again. 'They aren't just going to go away.'

Tsu'tey once again hissed in response, even though now there was no one to hear him.

The best that Jake had been able to offer had been a suggestion that the Na'vi to agree to allow _certain _Sky People to return under limited conditions. Just scientists, or something of that nature. One of the scientists who remained could act as a liaison, doing the talking when it came to dealing with those other Sky People—with approval for whatever was said coming from the Na'vi, of course, but at least that way the Na'vi wouldn't have to deal everyone individually—but…well, Tsu'tey still didn't like it. First of all because he was still unhappy about having to deal with any Sky People at all, especially after what he'd just seen, and second of all because this was _his_ home, not theirs. But Jake had gone on to talk about propaganda and social pressures and a bunch of other things that hadn't made a great deal of sense to Tsu'tey but had somehow led to the message that, although the Na'vi were willing to continue dealings with the Sky People, after the wanton destruction RDA had caused they wished to limit such contact to those who had demonstrated peaceful intentions. Scientists, yes, RDA, no, in its most understandable form. For some reason he thought that that would be acceptable on his planet, especially if the scientists were allowed to send back the occasional 'sample' of this Unobtanium.

Except that, again, Tsu'tey didn't want to continue dealings with any of the Sky People. And, anyway, he still wasn't sure why Jake thought that that would work any better than 'go away and don't come back' would. After all, from what Jake had shown him, the Sky People were obviously as willing to use their weapons on each other as anyone else. What made Jake think that this RDA wouldn't just use those weapons to force the scientists to do what they wanted?

The scuff of feet in the hallway caught his attention, an almost welcome distraction from his thoughts, and he lifted his head. /Hello?/

/Tsu'tey? I See you,/ Norm greeted, stepping through the doorway. /I hope I didn't wake you./

/I See you,/ Tsu'tey returned automatically. /And no, you did not wake me./ He shook his head slightly. /This is not a night for sleep./

Norm snorted. /Yeah, I know the feeling./

Norm wasn't meeting his eyes, and Tsu'tey frowned. Perhaps this was the oddness that Jake had asked him to watch for. Of course, now neither Jake nor Max nor anyone else were around to tell about it. He cocked his head slightly. /Are you all right?/

/I'm fine. Just…thinking./

/About the battle?/

/No. Or…./ He shrugged. /Not any more, at least. That's what woke me up—that's what _always_ wakes me up—but…./ Another shrug. /Jake says the nightmares will stop, eventually./

Tsu'tey frowned slightly and then shifted himself into a sitting position, gesturing for Norm to take a seat at the end of the cot. He was not sure that Norm was precisely a _friend_, but he had helped Tsu'tey more than once in this strange place, and he had helped all of the Na'vi in the battle. Despite his current…irritation…at Sky People in general, Tsu'tey could at least offer this particular one kindness in return.

Norm didn't seem entirely aware of his actions as he accepted, and Tsu'tey's frown deepened.

/If not the battle, then what keeps you awake this night?/

/It's…./ He shook his head, looking away. "I just never thought it would be forever, you know?"

Tsu'tey frowned. It was rare that Norm chose to use the Sky Person language in his presence—generally he only did it when Jake was present or when he had no translation for a particular word or phrase—but Tsu'tey could accept the change easily enough. Even if Norm's words made little sense. "No, I do not know."

Norm looked at him for a minute and then shook his head slightly and looked down at his hands. "It's…coming here was the opportunity of a lifetime. I mean, ever since I was a kid and I saw the pictures, it's what I always knew that I wanted. There are so many things here that no one—at least no one on Earth—has ever seen, has ever _studied_, and I get to be here doing it, and…."

His voice trailed off into nothingness as he stared down at his hands, and Tsu'tey wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. He remained silent.

After a minute, Norm lifted his head again to meet Tsu'tey's eyes. "I have two little sisters, did you know that?" He shook his head. "I guess probably not. Denise and Elena…they were eight and fifteen when I left. Fourteen and twenty-one now, I guess." He laughed, but there was no humor in it. "My little baby sister is a teenager, and the annoying one that used to steal my books every time I came home for a visit is probably done with school and out on her own now. Well, assuming she didn't decide to go the research route like I did, but that was never really her thing." He shrugged and then shook his head again. "As weird as it is to think about, she could be married now. She could have a _kid_." He lifted his head a little more, staring over Tsu'tey's shoulder at the wall. "It's…I can't even imagine it, to tell you the truth." There was a long pause. "Leaving them to come here was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, I think. My parents…." He shrugged. "Like I said, this has always been something that I wanted, and they always believed in me. And they're _parents_. I mean, I knew they'd be older when I got back, but they'd still be the same people I'd always known. But my sisters…."

"Do you regret it?" Tsu'tey asked when Norm showed no sign of continuing to speak. "Making the journey?" He was surprised to find himself genuinely curious…he could not imagine leaving his clan for anything like that amount of time.

"No," Norm said immediately. "It's…I regret what I might have missed—what I'm _sure_ I missed—but…." He shook his head. "It was the opportunity of a lifetime, like I said." There was silence again for a minute, and then swallowed hard, and when he spoke again his voice was much quieter. "But I never thought that it would be _forever_."

Tsu'tey opened his mouth and then shut it again.

"I always figured I'd go back, someday," Norm continued. "Not for awhile—not for quite awhile, probably, given how much new stuff there is here—but eventually. I mean, Pandora's great, but Earth is still…home. And when I got there, I'd see my parents, my sisters…." He shrugged slightly. "It wouldn't be the same, maybe, but they're still my family." He went silent again for a minute. "But now, it's…I don't regret fighting, either, don't get me wrong." He shook his head and dropped his gaze to his hands. "I wish that Selfridge or someone had _listened_, that Quaritch had been stopped before things ever went that far, but no one did, and if I'd just sat back and watched them slaughter away without at least _trying_ to do something, I'd never be able to look at myself again. But I never thought about what it would mean afterward. That…."

"You can't go back," Tsu'tey finished.

"No. Not ever." He shook his head. "I'll never see my sisters again. Never see my parents. I don't…." He looked up, shrugging helplessly. "I can't—I _won't_—regret what I did, but how would you feel if you had to stay here for forever and never go back to the Omaticaya?"

He would not be able to stand it, Tsu'tey knew immediately. The idea of never seeing his mother—as annoying as she could be, on occasion—or any of the rest of the Omaticaya was unbearable, as was the thought of never walking in the forest again, never flying with Denan... It was Tsu'tey's turn to look away. He had never considered things from that perspective. Granted that it had been their decision to leave their home to come here in the first place, but... "The others, they also have those they care about on your world?"

"Some of them, yeah. I mean, Marie is definitely like me, we were just talking about it the other day." He paused. "Well, she doesn't have sisters, but she also came here straight out of school on the last rotation and she does have parents and an older brother. Talia and Eric both mentioned family as well when they were trying to decide whether it would be safe to return to Earth. Max maybe not so much—he came out here with Grace on the very first expedition and has never mentioned anyone he left behind—and I know Jake doesn't have any family left either, but they're probably more the exception than the rule." Another shrug. "I mean, I'm not totally _sure_ about all of the others since I spent most of my time before the battle at the mobile base with Grace and Jake rather than really getting to know everyone, but I'd be surprised if most of them weren't having a hard time deciding what to do now." He laughed bitterly. "If they're in the group that even has a choice, anyway. Guess it's a good thing there's six years transit time either way between here and Earth…no one would accept a position here that was married or had young children or anything like that back on Earth."

That was understandable, although it clearly did nothing to help Norm's pain.

"I'm sure I'll get used to the idea eventually," Norm said after a minute. "I mean, both of my sisters were going to be grown adults with lives of their own by the time I got back anyway; I knew that when I left. It's just hard having to think about _never_ seeing them."

Tsu'tey again remained silent. He would have spoken if he had been able to think of any appropriate words of comfort, but that sort of thing had never been one of his strengths.

There was silence for several minutes, and then, /So what's keeping you awake?/ Norm asked in a cheerful voice that was obviously forced.

For a moment Tsu'tey considered avoiding the question, but at this point another opinion could hardly put him in a _worse_ situation. /I spoke to Jake today about what to tell the Sky People warriors who are leaving,/ he admitted. /What message to pass on to your—their—leaders./

/I see./ Norm grimaced. /I'm sure that was a fun conversation. Although I guess it explains why I saw him laying into that poor punching bag when I was headed back from the lab. I don't suppose either of you came up with anything good?/

/No. I will speak to Mo'at and Neytiri tomorrow, and they will have messages and opinions from the other Tsahiks and Olo'eyktans, but…./ He shook his head. /Jake does not believe we can simply banish them./

/He's right,/ Norm said with a shrug. /Oh, I'm not as…./ He paused, frowning. "I'm not as cynical as Jake. Not by a long shot." Another shrug. /I mean, I think that if you sent that message, it probably _would_ stick, at least for a little while. For a few years—five, maybe even ten on the outside. Especially since we're sending a broadcast message of exactly what Quaritch and his mercenaries did to Hometree that RDA won't be able to block that is going to make RDA rank right up there with…scum…in terms of the opinion of most of the people on the planet. But RDA has a _lot_ of…./ Another frown. "I can't explain some of this in Na'vi, but RDA has a lot of political clout—think of it as a lot of influence with the leadership of the country we're from—and Pandora has Unobtanium, and…." He shrugged again. "Sky People as a whole aren't very good at taking 'no' for an answer. Or at least the big corporations like RDA aren't, especially when there's a lot of money to be made. So, yeah, they will be back. The terms they come on—friendly or not—will depend on who ends up in charge of the next expedition, but they'll come."

Tsu'tey hissed.

/For what it's worth, even if you _do_ tell them to go away, I'd bet on friendly for that first expedition back,/ Norm offered after a minute. /Mostly because I guarantee that Selfridge and Quaritch are going to end up being made to take all the blame—Quaritch especially since he's dead and can't exactly defend himself—for what happened to Hometree, while the RDA…leaders…try to stay as far away from the mess as possible. And when they do come back, they'll want to be able to show lots of nice, shiny pictures of smiling Na'vi to prove how cooperative and pleasant they are and that obviously the destruction of Hometree hadn't been _their_ idea./ He snorted. /Although don't get me wrong, I'd bet that any one of them would have made the exact same decision if they'd been the ones who were here./

Somehow Tsu'tey wasn't at all surprised at that.

/But if you keep sending them away after that, even if you're perfectly within your rights to do so…./ Norm winced. /It probably will get unfriendly a lot faster than anyone would like./

"We have something they want, and they aren't just going to go away," Tsu'tey repeated, that line still stuck in his mind.

/Yeah, pretty much. Especially since you haven't got the kind of weapons that can _force_ them to stay away. It's not fair, but…there it is./

Tsu'tey snorted slightly at that echo of his own thoughts, but he was still left with no answer. /Mo'at and Neytiri will come in two days and expect discussion, and I fear that I will have nothing to offer./

/Sorry. Wish I could help./


	10. Tension

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Story hasn't been/won't be abandoned; I've just been busy lately. The joys of real life. I'll try and get the next chapter up a little quicker._

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_

A cheerful greeting made Tsu'tey start out of his half-sleep, the hard surface below him and white walls and ceiling surrounding him feeling far more alien than they had since he'd first awoken in this place, and it took several moments for him to orient himself and identify the source of the interruption.

/So you are awake,/ Clara-Carla-whoever—Tsu'tey was pretty sure that her name was actually Carla at this point, but he had no real interest in finding out for sure—said as Tsu'tey focused on her. Tsu'tey blinked slowly and then pushed himself into a sitting position. And then snarled. Between the tossing and turning he'd done after Norm had finally left and the images of fire and nightmare weapons that wouldn't leave his mind, he doubted that he'd had more than an hour of undisturbed rest last night. If she hadn't come, he might have managed to get a little more, but instead he got to be tormented by healers he didn't feel like tolerating bringing him food that he didn't want.

She rolled her eyes as she walked over to the edge of his bunk. /You know, this is why I became a researcher instead of a medical doctor. So I _wouldn't_ have to deal with pain-in-the-ass patients. If I ever regretted that decision, you and Jake have long since changed my mind right back. Your mother is a saint./ She shoved the tray she carried at him, forcing him to either take it or let it fall to the floor, and then pulled a scanner off her belt. /Just hold still and I'll be gone in five minutes./

Despite being tempted to let the tray fall, he wasn't a child, and with a scowl he did as she ordered. She'd told the truth about leaving quickly, at least, and although he immediately set the tray aside and lay back down, snapping at the lights to return to their previous low level, he had no real hopes of falling back asleep. He stared up at the ceiling, the alien walls seeming to close in around him again. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want Sky People to exist. Or at least if they had to exist, he wanted them all to be _elsewhere_.

With a sigh, he shook himself sharply and then pushed himself upright and reached for the tray of food again as the lights came back up. He must be exhausted if he was entertaining such foolish notions. Even as a child he had always preferred realism over absurdly exaggerated tales. No, the Sky People were here, and it was his duty to deal with them.

The food that she'd brought didn't look particularly appetizing, but given that he'd already gone without sleep…well, there was no reason to push his body any further. Or give the healers any more reason to annoy him. He began to pick at it as he considered the situation again.

His desire to insist that all the Sky People leave hadn't precisely gone away, but over and over he saw their weapons in use. Both the fire, the explosions, the 'crack' of the Sky People's guns that he had personal experience with, and the other nightmare weapons that he had only seen on the screens. Saw the images overlaid on Hometree.

A bark of bitter laughter escaped. He had no idea why his mind kept supplying such images; there was no point given that Hometree was already gone. But maybe the rational part of his mind was just trying to drive home the fact that the only choice he had to keep such a thing from happening again was to agree with Jake's suggestion to let the Sky People remain.

He grimaced and then slammed the tray down on the bunk beside him, making the food wobble in place in a manner that food simply should not. Fine, then. If his opinion was going to be superfluous, so be it. However much he might want to say 'no', he could not justify risking his people—all of the People—against weapons that even Eywa would not be able to stop.

His hands clenched and unclenched, and he wished more than anything that his leg was intact enough to let him run, let him fight, let him do _something_ that might exhaust him enough to keep him from thinking such thoughts.

But there was nothing, and he dropped back into a prone position and snapped at the lights to shut off again. He had to sleep or his thoughts would only become more jumbled and useless.

The memory of fire intruded again as he stared up into the darkness, and he shook it off with a great deal of irritation before wondering if Jake ever lay awake thinking about such things. Thinking about what would happen here if those weapons came. Or was he simply willing to let Sky People keep coming despite what they'd done? He'd _used_ the weapons that Tsu'tey had only seen, after all…did he ever imagine what they could do to the People? Did it even matter to him?

Shame banished that thought as quickly as it had come—Jake was Toruk Makto, and Tsu'tey knew perfectly well that he could not be such if he did not care—but he still didn't understand how Jake could do what he'd seen the operators of those weapons do. An arrow, a bola, a spear; a warrior used them to target his opponent. An opposing fighter on the other side. He didn't fire a single blast that could kill a hundred with no regard as to whether they held weapons or not, or destroy a home that had been in a clan for generations, or….

He rolled onto his side on the bunk, a futile attempt to make himself more comfortable, and he grimaced when the movement jarred his leg. As he'd expected, though, no matter how he moved sleep did not come, and he found himself wishing that he'd told Carla that he needed to speak to Max or Jake. Preferably Max since he wasn't sure that it would be a good idea to talk to Jake again until he processed all he'd seen yesterday, but it he had given Jake his word that he'd inform one of them if he noticed anything unusual out of Norm. A sleepless night seemed to qualify, and he would not go back on his word once he'd given it. And speaking to one of them would give him something to _do_.

But Carla was gone now, and unless he wanted to summon another healer, he would have to wait until lunch was delivered. Not that he really wanted lunch—breakfast still sat mostly-untouched on the tray beside him—but he would remember to send his message then.

He shook his head, glaring at the far wall for a few minutes, and then his tail lashed against the bunk. Until lunch or someone decided to pay him a visit…perhaps one of the Na'vi healers would come down. He couldn't run off any of his pent-up worry, which left talking as his only outlet, but he had no one to talk to. Isolation was much more wearing when one was conscious enough to notice it. Especially when one's mind kept inserting images of fire.

With a sigh, he dropped the mostly-untouched tray down on the floor and grabbed the map, pushing himself back into a sitting position and snapping at the lights to come back up. Maybe he could solve the minefield problem. If nothing else it would take his mind of the Sky People issue for a little while. And it would be nice to be able to do _something_ useful. He activated it with a flip of his thumb and then scowled at the images. There had to be something here.

"Hey," a familiar voice greeted sometime later.

Tsu'tey lifted his head from the screen and hissed.

"Yeah, I get I'm probably not your favorite person right now," Jake said with a shrug. "But Max and Marie and most of the others are bringing Sa'tai and Edana out of the tanks today, which leaves me lunch and staying-the-hell-out-of-the-way duty. If you aren't hungry, I'll take it and go; I'm supposed to be covering the radio this afternoon too."

He almost ordered Jake do just that, but news of the children took precedence over his desire to avoid Jake for the time being. "They are well? Sa'tai and Edana?"

Jake nodded. "They aren't totally healed, but unless one of the docs finds something majorly wrong, they'll both be ready to leave for Hometree tomorrow."

"And the other children?"

"According to Max, they should be pulling Nanda and Veris out in about a week or so, and then Dan'ni another week or two after that. It was touch-and-go with him for awhile, but it looks like he's going to pull through."

Part of Tsu'tey relaxed a little at that. It did not remove anything that had to be done or any decisions that had to be made, but at least the clan would lose no more children.

"So here's lunch," Jake said with a shrug, rolling close enough to pass up a tray.

For the first time in awhile, he didn't have a tray of his own, and Tsu'tey hissed as he started to roll himself backwards towards the door. "You might as well stay if you have nowhere else to be."

"You sure?" Jake asked. "Figured you wouldn't much want me around for a bit."

Tsu'tey shrugged slightly. He didn't, really, but his desire not to sit alone in the silence was strong as well. "You asked me to inform you if I noticed anything unusual about Norm. He visited late last night."

"Nightmares still keeping him awake?" Jake asked, not looking particularly surprised.

"He said that's what woke him up, but he also said that you told him that they would stop. I believe he was more concerned about his family on your planet. Not seeing them again." He would not go into precise details out of respect for Norm, but that much he felt comfortable saying.

"Damn." Jake looked away. "Guess I should have thought of that; I've heard a couple of the other scientists talking about their families too. Can't exactly make it better, either." He went silent for a minute, and then, "_Crap_."

There was nothing Tsu'tey could say to that, and after a minute he cocked his head. "He said you had no family left." There was a question there, one that he hadn't really planned to ask even if he was curious, but he wasn't sure if Jake would answer or not.

"Hm? Oh." Jake shrugged. "Yeah. It's just me now."

Jake had already spoken of his brother's death, but he had made no mention of any other family. "You must have had parents at some point." At least he assumed so…Norm had spoken of parents so the other Sky People should have them as well.

Jake grinned slightly. "Well, yeah, Tommy and I didn't exactly spring fully formed from the air or anything. But they died when we were fifteen; it was just the two of us after that."

"What happened to them?"

"An accident. They left us at home and went out dinner for one night—a kid-free night, they called it—and on their way home there was a pile-up. They were right in the middle of it, and…." He shook his head, looking away. "One minute Tommy and I were arguing about whose turn it was to pick a vid, and the next minute there were two people in suits at the door telling us that our parents were never coming home again." Another, harder, shake of his head, and then he looked back up at Tsu'tey. "Do you have any family? I don't think you've ever said."

"You've never asked. There is my mother, of course, but I have never had siblings. I'm first-born, and after my father died on a hunt when I was very young, my mother never chose another." The closest things he'd ever had to siblings were Sylwinn and Neytiri since Eytukan had first taken an interest in his training when he was quite young, but he didn't really want to talk about them right now. Especially Sylwinn, who had died under the Sky People's weapons.

Jake seemed to recognize his reluctance to speak any more on the subject of family, because he just nodded. "Well, thanks. For talking to Norm, I mean."

Tsu'tey nodded slightly.

"So did you come up with anything useful? I mean, about the minefield." He indicated the map Tsu'tey still held.

"No. Your AMP is just too noisy."

"Yeah. And you aren't up for the hike, so there's no point in me just showing you how to do it." He raked a hand through his hair. "I mean, we _can_ wait, but the damn things are corroding and the more time it takes, the more of a hassle it will be."

Tsu'tey shrugged, and after a minute Jake indicated the edge of his bunk.

"You mind?"

"No." He moved sideways, letting Jake shift up beside him so they could both see the screen. "Why are there new ties on your arm?"

"Last ditch effort to keep my arm in place before they really do sedate me. I took the sling off for better balance against the punching bag yesterday—_just_ for balance, I wasn't going to use it or anything—but Max saw me and got a little angry, and…." He shrugged. "It was easier just to go along with him." He cocked his head. "You really aren't pissed off at me about yesterday? Because I kind of figured you were going to stay mad for awhile."

Tsu'tey shrugged slightly. For the most part his temper had cooled, even if he wouldn't claim that he'd come to terms with all he'd seen. "I just don't understand how you can so easily look at images like that. How you could willingly use _weapons_ like that. It is…I don't understand."

Jake looked away for a moment and then shook his head. "It's…yeah, they aren't nice. No one's going to argue that with you about that, least of all me. You only saw them on the screens; I've seen them kill people I knew. That I served with. People I called friends." He shook his head again, not turning back towards Tsu'tey. "But you have to remember, those are the only kind of weapons I've ever known. I mean, nobody uses bows and arrows on Earth. The only time I ever even saw one—outside of really old vids, anyway—was at an ancient weapons demo when I was like twelve. Guns, bombs, mortars…they're normal for me."

"Ancient weapons?" Tsu'tey had to ask, carefully ignoring the 'guns are normal' part.

"Yeah. It means really old."

"I know what 'ancient' means; you're the one who can't remember the simplest words. Why would you call a bow ancient?"

"Because on Earth they are. Or at least they haven't been used in a war-type situation for at least a couple hundred years. Hell, it's mostly only the history types that even know _how_ to use them. I smacked myself in the face the one time I tried."

Tsu'tey cocked his head slightly, and Jake grinned in return.

"I was maybe twelve, like I said. There was this traveling science exhibit at one of the museums downtown…the wide world of bugs or something like that. It wasn't my kind of thing, but Tommy really wanted to see it so we cut one day and went downtown." He shook his head. "I swear we were the only two kids in the city who ever skipped school to go to a _museum_. Anyway, I got bored pretty quick, which for me tends to mean I start doing things I shouldn't, and after about the third time I got yelled at, I decided to go outside and find something to do there. Or Tommy got mad and told me to go outside before I got both of us kicked out, anyway. The history museum—all the museums were clustered—had an ancient weapons demo going on in the courtyard, so I ended up watching for awhile, and then one of the guys running it asked me if I wanted to try. I was too small for the lances or spears, but I could at least get my fingers around the bow so I said I'd give it a shot. Got it pulled—not far, but at least the arrow would have gone forward—but then I released wrong and whacked myself in the face."

Tsu'tey snickered at that. Not that he hadn't made several foolish mistakes himself when he'd first begun to learn weaponry, but at least he'd never done _that_.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. The point is, when I was learning to shoot, I was learning to shoot a gun. I mean, I'm damn good in hand-to-hand, don't get me wrong, and I'm pretty good with a knife too, but those were secondary when I was learning to fight. With a couple exceptions, if I do my job right it doesn't come down to hand-to-hand."

"It doesn't bother you, though? Those weapons?" Tsu'tey still didn't understand how it didn't bother him.

Jake sighed. "Given a choice, I'd rather not hurt anybody. With any kind of weapon. But there are a lot of people out there who don't give a damn who they hurt if they get what they want, and if there's no one willing to stand up to them... I've seen some _bad_ stuff, Tsu'tey. Worse than anything that's happened here." He shook his head, looking away. "So I'll fight, and I'll damn well do whatever I have to to make sure that me and my squad get the mission done and get to walk away intact afterward. I don't _like_ killing—no good soldier does—but when it comes to it, I'll do it. The choice of weapons…dead is dead. I don't see them as all that different."

Tsu'tey wasn't sure what to say to that—he saw a very clear difference between a gun and a bow—but after a minute Jake indicated the lunch tray beside Tsu'tey, and when he spoke his voice had an edge of cheerful determination in it. "So, are you going to eat that?"

"Probably not."

"Looks like you didn't touch the breakfast tray either. The docs are going to get mad at you."

"And that would be unusual how?"

* * *

/We are in agreement?/ Mo'at asked. /We have time to debate the final wording before the Sky People's vessel leaves, but if there is to be more debate as to the _action_ it would best be done now while we still have time to send word to the farthest clans and receive their counsel in reply. This is not a decision we can reach alone./

Tsu'tey understood that well enough—the message sent to the Sky People would affect all the Na'vi, not just the Omaticaya—but he still wanted to object. He still didn't _want_ the Sky People to return. Unfortunately, despite missing most of yet another night of sleep, he had arrived at no better plan since yesterday. And as it seemed that Mo'at, Neytiri, and the leaders of the other clans who'd ridden into battle with them were already in agreement, his consent was no more necessary than it had been when Jake had first suggested the idea.

Only Patak, the Olo'eyktan of Horse Clan, had actually come to the Sky Person compound with Mo'at and Neytiri since the other clans had all returned to their homes after the battle, but the opinion of the Olo'eyktans and Tsahiks of those other clans had been sought by means of ikran and pa'li relay. Those same relays had also been used to contact those who had not been at the battle as well…from the wording of most of the messages, no one had any more wish for more Sky People to come back to Pandora than Tsu'tey did. Unfortunately, none of them had any viable suggestion for how to stop them either. They would accept the proposal that had been put forth. Tsu'tey shook his head slightly and then forced himself to go still before any of the others in the room noticed.

Mo'at, who missed far too little for his tastes, sometimes, twitched her ears slightly in his direction, but when he remained silent, she nodded. /Agreement, then. We will meet again after the next relays are received to finalize the wording./

Tsu'tey dipped his head slightly as they stood. Those relays would almost certainly only contain messages from the nearest clans, the ones who had participated in the battle, but perhaps that was just as well. Those clans knew firsthand what the Sky People were capable of.

/I would speak to you privately,/ Patak said, before Tsu'tey could bid them goodbye.

/Of course./ He glanced at Mo'at and Neytiri, and Mo'at nodded again, drawing her daughter towards the door.

/I wish a word with the Sky People leaders before we return to Hometree. Patak, I shall have word sent when we leave./

/My thanks./

/I know where they are likely to be,/ Neytiri said, stepping out from under her mother's hand and moving towards the door quickly, pausing only to nod a quick farewell to Tsu'tey.

She most likely hadn't seen Jake today, Tsu'tey realized, and obviously wished to do so. That fact was actually more amusing than it probably should be. Before he could say anything, however, Mo'at bid him goodbye as well, and the two of them left.

Tsu'tey shook himself slightly as the door swung shut behind them—he could reflect on the odd desire to tease Neytiri, Jake, or both of them later—and straightened himself a little more before redirecting all of his attention to Patak. As annoying as it was to be forced to remain in this cot, it was doubly so when he was forced to do so when speaking to one whom he not only did not know well but was now supposed to stand on par with. After all, the last time he'd spoken to Patak, he had just lost a close race to the man's eldest son in the pa'li portion of the Clan competitions. Unfortunately, at the moment he could do nothing but hide his discomfort and attempt to maintain his dignity.

/Of what do you wish to speak?/ he asked. Perhaps it had something to do with why Patak had remained with the Omaticaya…as Tsu'tey had understood it, the worst of the remaining injuries were among the warriors of Horse Clan, and Patak had chosen to send all that were capable home under the command of his second so as not to leave his own clan unguarded while he alone remained until the rest were well enough to ride out again. Perhaps he was mistaken.

/You still claim the title of Olo'eyktan?/ Patak asked.

The blunt question startled him, and his ears flicked back before he could mask the emotion, but he realized after a moment that he probably should have expected it. As Olo'eyktan of one of the clans located nearest the Omaticaya, one with many years of experience, Patak would almost certainly be called upon as a mediator of any leadership challenge that occurred. And as he'd been staying with the Omaticaya since the battle, he would also know that Neytiri had chosen Jake—Toruk Makto—as her mate over Tsu'tey and that such a challenge would thus be looming. Tsu'tey did his best to still the disquiet that he felt and met the other Olo'eyktan's eyes steadily. /Yes./

/You will not step aside without facing him, then?/

His expression was more than slightly disapproving, but Tsu'tey met his eyes steadily. /I will not./ They'd talked a little more yesterday after Tsu'tey had asked him about the weaponry, and although both of them had avoided any more discussion about Sky People weaponry, Tsu'tey had managed to get the rest of his questions about Jake's training answered. The answers had been accompanied by a few strange looks, but the end result was about what he had expected after their first conversation. Jake was not as qualified for the title of Olo'eyktan as Tsu'tey was. It might have been simpler—for everything but Tsu'tey's pride, anyway—if he was, but he just _wasn't_.

/Is there yet a timeframe set in which the challenge will occur?" Patak asked, drawing Tsu'tey's mind back to the present. "You are obviously still injured, and I had heard that Toruk Makto is…indisposed…as well./ He grimaced. /He walks as a Sky Person?/


	11. Challenges

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_/speech/=Na'vi_

_

* * *

_/He doesn't 'walk' as anything at the moment,/ Tsu'tey responded without thinking, and then immediately regretted the words. As irritated as he was at the moment—with Sky People in general, with his people turning to Jake for a solution that didn't even require his _consent_, with the images of fire that wouldn't stay out of his head—that had been a decidedly unkind and more than slightly childish thing to say. He shook his head quickly when Patak gave him a questioning look. /Apologies. Yes, he is in a Sky Person body now. His…./ He paused, frowning, as he found himself faced with the difficulty that Norm sometimes had when speaking to him. There were simply not _terms_ in Na'vi for some of their concepts. He shook his head slightly and settled for a very simplified explanation. /The means by which he moves his soul to his Dreamwalker body was damaged in the fight, and there have been too many things of higher importance to do than repair it./

Patak frowned. /How can he be one of us if he is still a Sky Person sometimes?/

An argument that Tsu'tey had tried to use with Eytukan when Neytiri had first begun to train Jake—and then later as it became more and more clear that Jake _was _capable of becoming Omaticaya—and if Eytukan had never agreed with him, he'd also never come up with what Tsu'tey had considered a good answer. Tsu'tey didn't have one either, even if he was now willing to accept Jake, so he settled for a shrug. /Mo'at believes that he can be brought fully into his Dreamwalker body and there will no longer be need for Sky People intervention or a Sky Person body, but there have been other priorities at the new Hometree as well./

/Of course. I had simply hoped…./ He shook his head slightly. /It would be convenient if the challenge were to occur before I have to return to my own clan so I will not have to make the journey twice. If it is not possible, it is not possible, but since Mo'at and I will be two of the three judges, that will required only one to travel./

/I understand./ And he did, even if he didn't like it. Even if they hadn't been attacked in the same manner as the Omaticaya, all of the nearby clans who had sent warriors to face the Sky People were dealing with the aftermath of the battle as well and would be for some time, and they could not reasonably be expected to spare their Olo'eyktan's for any great span. From Pakat's perspective, it _would_ be much simpler if the challenge was held before he left for his home with the rest of his clan. Unfortunately, from Tsu'tey's perspective…well, for one, he still didn't want to face his friend, and for another, when Jake was transferred back to his body, it would be _whole_. Tsu'tey had no idea exactly how long it would be until his leg was fully healed, but if the challenge was held before that point, it would start him at a disadvantage at the very least. But he nodded anyway. /I will speak to Jake—Toruk Makto—at the next opportunity./

They exchanged pleasantries for several minutes—Tsu'tey had met Patak's son and knew he'd come through the battle intact, which made him a safe subject of conversation—and then there was a light knock at the door and Norm stepped in with a tray of food in his hands.

/Greetings, Olo'eyktan…s./ He paused, looking uncertain. /I See you. I apologize for interrupting./

/I See you. It is fine,/ Tsu'tey said, before Patak could say anything. Given the absolutely disgusted expression that had crossed Patak's face, he didn't think that he recognized Norm in his Sky Person body. Which was understandable enough—Tsu'tey hadn't even recognized Jake, after all—but it was not an insult that he would see given to one who _had _fought for them. /Patak, I believe you have met Norm, although he was considerably taller at the time. He fought alongside your clan./

Patak's eyes narrowed, and then he sprang at Norm, and Tsu'tey winced as Norm yelped and froze in place. Freezing was a better reaction than fleeing, Tsu'tey supposed, but it was still not the action of a warrior. But then again, Norm _wasn't_ a warrior, so….

/_You_ fought?/ Patak demanded, glaring down at him, disbelief clear in his voice.

/Yes./ His voice didn't waver, and he managed to meet Patak's eyes, although he looked a little more pale than usual to Tsu'tey's eyes as the warrior loomed over him.

/Why are you not in your Dreamwalker body then?/

Conveniently ignoring the fact that it was clearly easier for the Sky People to use their Sky Person bodies here, but Norm just shrugged. /My Avatar was killed in the battle. This is the only body I have now./

Patak stared at him for a minute longer and then backed off slightly. To Norm's obvious relief.

/What did you need?/ Tsu'tey asked, before Patak could say anything else. He didn't think—once Patak's questioning of Norm's identity had concluded, anyway—that Patak would press him further, but there was no need to test that theory. And Norm still looked pale.

/I just came to drop off lunch./ He indicated the tray awkwardly. /I mean, if you're hungry./

It was a little embarrassing to be seen having food delivered to him like an invalid, even if he technically was one at the moment, and Tsu'tey made a dismissive gesture. /I do not need food now, but could you find Jake and let him know that I need to speak to him when he has a moment?/

/Of course./ Norm bowed slightly to Patak and then stepped back towards the door.

"It would be good if he could manage a proper greeting," Tsu'tey added in English, on the off chance that Patak was still here when Jake came. He was accustomed to Jake's informal manner, but Patak was not, and given Patak's first reaction to seeing Norm….

"Of course," Norm repeated, and then turned towards the door. "I'll just convince him and Neytiri to quit staring longingly into each other's eyes for more than thirty seconds at a stretch. I swear the two of them make me want to carry around a bucket of ice water."

"What?"

Norm glanced over his shoulder, eyes widening slightly. Apparently he hadn't expected Tsu'tey to overhear his mutters. "Just…never mind. I'll send him down as soon as I find him."

Patak was still staring after Norm as the door swung shut behind him, but his next comment was solely for Tsu'tey. /You speak their language well./ There was disapproval in his tone, and Tsu'tey did his best to keep his voice casual.

/Eytukan insisted that all of the warriors learn at least the basics of the language, in the interests of not relying on the Sky People interpreters./ He had simply had more aptitude than most, even if he hadn't particularly enjoyed learning. /And here, it is necessary. Most of the scientists speak well, but Jake—Toruk Makto—does not./

Patak frowned as he turned back to face Tsu'tey. /He seemed to do well enough before the battle./

That was mostly because Neytiri and probably Norm had translated everything he wanted to say for him before he'd actually had to speak, Tsu'tey suspected, or at the very least they'd checked his words before he used them. For things that hadn't been translated in advance—like precise tactics—Tsu'tey had interpreted. Jake had been polite about it, though, and there had been enough worry for the clan that Tsu'tey hadn't had time to be irritated with him. Well, that and he'd been willing to give Toruk Makto a little more leeway than he would have given most. He settled for a slight shrug. /He is better than he was./

Patak grimaced. /It does not…bother you…being around so many of them?/

/Around Sky People?/ Tsu'tey shrugged again at the disbelief in Patak's voice. /It is certainly not ideal, but there are not so many that I deal with, and most of those are Dreamwalkers. Marginally better than normal Sky People. And they all have enough other things to do that they don't bother me for very long at a stretch. Most of the time it's just Jake and Norm who visit regularly./ Well, them and the healers, but...

/And you were speaking the truth when you said that that Norm was the one that fought alongside my warriors? He did not behave as a warrior./

Tsu'tey didn't bother to confirm that Norm had fought; it was not something that he would say falsely and Patak should know that. /He isn't a warrior. In either body. He isn't even a hunter, although I did not know that until recently. But he did what was necessary. And he did not do so poorly, as I understand it, all things considered./

Patak seemed to accept that—albeit reluctantly—but before either of them could say anything more, the door swung open again and Jake wheeled in. His greeting was accented—heavily so—but at least the words were recognizable enough.

/Jake, you will remember Patak,/ Tsu'tey said, before either of them could say anything.

If Jake didn't—which was entirely possible given how hectic things had become before the battle with warriors from many clans all arriving at once—he very sensibly made no sign of it and managed an appropriately respectful if slightly awkward statement about being honored to see him again.

/Patak, Toruk Makto,/ Tsu'tey finished.

_That_ got a sharp look, focus replacing the poorly-hidden disgust that had once again returned to Patak's face, and Tsu'tey wasn't overly surprised that he repeated his false-attack. And unlike Norm, Jake didn't even twitch as he met Patak's eyes with an even stare. It was possible that Norm had warned him, Tsu'tey supposed, but Jake _was_ a warrior and Tsu'tey doubted that he'd have responded anyway.

/Mo'at asked me tell you she and Neytiri and one healer return Hometree soon,/ Jake said, when Patak showed no sign of backing off. /You go with or can stay when other healer and children and family go back later./

/Until the other healer and the families take the children back later,/ Tsu'tey corrected after he'd sorted out the other words. It made sense, of course, that Patak would have ridden in with one of them; most members of Horse Clan, Patak included, did not fly ikran, and riding a pa'li that distance would be far too time-consuming.

Patak stared at Jake for a minute longer and then moved past him with a shake of his head. /I go now. _You_ decide when./

That was directed at Tsu'tey and was sharper than strictly polite, but he nodded slightly anyway. /Of course./

/You know way out?/ Jake asked.

/Yes./

Jake managed a slight bow of farewell, and after giving him another odd look, Patak stepped into the hallway.

"It would be rude to follow him and make sure he gets out, wouldn't it?" Jake asked as the door swung shut.

"Extremely."

"Damn. Guess I'll just hope he doesn't get lost then." Jake said with a shake of his head. "From what Neytiri said, he's already upset enough about being here; getting stuck in the halls would make it an even worse mess. Uh, he is the leader of Horse Clan, right?"

"Yes."

"Good. I thought that was right, but Mo'at only gave me his name so I wasn't totally sure." He frowned and then looked around. "Oh, sorry, I thought Norm was going to bring you lunch or I'd have grabbed a tray on my way down."

"You did not see him? Norm?"

Jake shook his head. "No, Mo'at just sent me down to deliver her message. Should I have?"

"He did bring a tray—I'm just not hungry at the moment—but I had asked him to tell you that I wanted to speak to you."

"Ah." He frowned. "About what? Did you guys come up with any better message to send?"

"No." Tsu'tey grimaced. "It seems we must go with your suggestion. As little as I like it." He nearly spit the last, and Jake shrugged.

"Hey, don't put that on me; I told you, I don't like it either. Blame Max and Carla."

"What?"

"It wasn't my idea; it was Max and Carla's." He shrugged again. "My suggestion involved way more explosives and got me yelled at by pretty much everyone." He paused. "I kind of wish you were conscious for it, actually—it still wouldn't have _worked_, but you, at least, would have liked it. And then they would have had someone else to yell at." Another pause. "I'm really not sure what they expected out of me, to tell you the truth. I mean, there's a reason I joined the Marine Corps and not the Peace Corps."

Tsu'tey stared at him for a minute and then echoed his shrug. In truth, he felt…a little better, actually, knowing that. That the idea to protect Pandora _hadn't_ been Jake's. Maybe he would not be superfluous as a leader. Except that there was still a challenge to face, and—

"If it wasn't that, then what did you want to talk to me about?" Jake asked.

/When is the challenge?/

"What?"

Tsu'tey scowled. He'd intended to speak English, but the words had slipped out in Na'vi—probably another indication that he needed more sleep—and— He shook his head. It shouldn't _matter_. How did Jake expect to lead _anything_ if he didn't even speak the language? But he had told Patak that he would speak to Jake, so…. "When is the challenge?" he repeated.

"No, I understood the question," Jake said. "I might not be able to pronounce a damn thing, but I actually do have a pretty decent vocabulary. I just don't know what challenge you're talking about."

"The leadership challenge," Tsu'tey said slowly. "When is it?"

"A week from Tuesday? How the hell would I know?" His expression hardened abruptly. "Wait, someone's _challenging _you? No offense, Tsu'tey, but that's crap. You aren't in any shape for a fight."

"Neither are you."

"Yeah, well, I'm not planning on fighting anyone."

Tsu'tey glared. Why was Jake being dense about this?

* * *

"—not fight—"

"—_tradition_ isn't someth—"

"—ing you or anyone because—"

"—ing that is decided on a—"

"—someone says I _have_ to! That's—"

"—whim! And why you think—"

"—the stupidest—"

"—you have any right to—"

"—thing I've ever heard! And—"

"—tell the People that you have any—"

"—why the hell you think I—"

"—idea how—"

A sharp, shrill noise interrupted Tsu'tey—and Jake, who was somehow very nearly managing to match the volume of his shouts even in a smaller body—and Tsu'tey twisted to snarl at the intruder.

Unfortunately, while Patak might have managed to intimidate Norm, Tsu'tey clearly no longer did, because he just glared at the two of them. "What the _hell_? I was coming to tell you that I couldn't find Jake, but I could hear the two of you from all the way down the corridor!"

"It's—" Tsu'tey began.

"He—" Jake interrupted.


	12. Acting Like Children

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. I had one reviewer comment on the language Tsu'tey uses…for the record, I'm trying to keep his words simpler when speaking English and then use a full vocabulary when he's speaking Na'vi (on the grounds that he would be more likely to use more complicated words when speaking his own language). I'm sure I've messed up a couple times, though._

_/speech/=Na'vi_

_

* * *

_"—if you weren't—"

"—even _think_ about—"

"—being completely—"

"—doing what—"

"_Stop it!_ Knock it off, both of you!" Norm yelled.

Tsu'tey fell silent, more in surprise that Norm had managed to out-shout the both of them than anything else, and Jake broke off to stare as well.

"I swear, at this rate you two are going to bring the whole _building_ down around us. Just…." Norm shook his head. "Let me just make sure I'm understanding you, all right?"

"_Fine_," Tsu'tey growled, and saw Jake nod as well. The problem seemed obvious enough to him, but he supposed that it might have been difficult for Norm to understand given that the explanation had degenerated almost immediately into a second shouting match between he and Jake. Because Jake was being a moron. Which, he supposed, should not have come as a shock.

"First of all, this whole thing is about some kind of challenge for leadership of the Omaticaya, right? And neither of you wants to fight the other one?" Norm asked.

"Right," Jake said, on top of Tsu'tey's, "Yes."

"And you both think Tsu'tey would be the better leader?"

Tsu'tey's repeated, "Yes," overlapped Jake's, "No shit."

"And you think that holding this challenge—whatever that entails—is a bad idea."

"Forget bad idea, I'm not doing it."

"I don't want to, but it is not a choice."

Jake twisted to glare up at him. "That's bull—"

"Well, I guess that's sort of a point of disagreement," Norm interrupted, before Jake could finish his sentence. "Is that what started this whole screaming match? Because, seriously, you sound like a pair of overgrown six year olds." He paused. "You kind of look like a pair of overgrown six year olds too."

There was silence for a long minute and then, "He started it."

Norm lost a—short—battle against laughter as Tsu'tey scowled down at Jake and the stubby finger pointed in his direction.

"Well, he _did_," Jake said, breaking into a grin of his own.

"Stop acting like a child," Tsu'tey snapped. "Whether either of us wants a challenge or not is irrelevant."

Jake's grin faded. "_Why_? It doesn't make any sense. I mean, you want to be the leader. I'm perfectly happy with you being the leader. It's not like I want the job myself—hell, I wouldn't even know _how_ to do the job myself. So what's the problem?"

"It is…." Tsu'tey shook his head. "A challenge will be expected."

"So?" Jake shrugged. "People can expect whatever the hell they want. I'm not fighting you."

"Yes, you are."

Jake snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. "Oh, yeah? Make me."

That was an absurd statement, and Tsu'tey's fingers flexed, but before he could say—or do—anything, Norm interrupted them again.

"What would be involved in a leadership challenge anyway?"

"It doesn't matter because it's not happening," Jake muttered.

"I'm a scientist and I'm curious. Humor me," Norm shot back, and then looked at Tsu'tey. "I mean, if it's something you can talk about, of course."

Tsu'tey scowled at Jake one last time and then turned his attention to Norm. "Challenges are rare—they usually only happen when a leader dies without having chosen or trained a second—but the process is not secret. Both opponents, or all if there are several challengers, face tests of both the mind and the body to prove their worth to the clan and their right to lead."

"And what exactly is involved in these tests?"

"Well, all challengers must be warriors, of course." Something that disqualified neither he nor Jake, but it bore saying anyway. "The four tests common to all clans are a memory—no, better said a history—test, a hunt, individual combat, and a…." He frowned. "I'm not certain what the correct word is." Which was becoming an unusual occurrence for him when it came to the Sky People's language. He shook his head. "Each challenger is presented with several difficult situations that may occur in clan life and is expected to speak through his methods of dealing with them."

Norm nodded slightly. "Sort of like a scenario-type challenge, I guess it would be called."

Tsu'tey waved a hand, dismissing the matter. As long as he was understood, the precise word was unimportant. "Beyond those four, each clan can add other challenges as fit the way in which they live their lives. Among the Omaticaya there are traditionally two others: skill on ikran and pa'li."

"Well, if those are the tests, you're pretty much guaranteed to win anyway, then," Jake said after a minute. "Three of the six, at least, and most likely four. I can probably put up a fight on one, but you've still got me beat on experience."

"What if there's a tie?" Norm asked before Tsu'tey could respond. "I mean, six contests, so it's definitely a possibility. Is there some sort of final tiebreaker?" He paused. "It's not like a fight to the death or anything like that, right?"

Tsu'tey stared at him. "That is a joke, correct?" Norm didn't _look_ like he was joking, but while there were risks involved in a challenge—grave ones on the physical portions, given that anyone serious about making the challenge would force himself to his very limits—what sort of clan would deliberately waste the life of one of its best warriors? Defeated was one thing; _dead_ was another.

"That's what you get when you watch too many action vids," Jake said with a shake of his head. "What does decide the final winner if there's a tie?"

"It is not a matter of the most wins. It is expected that every challenger represents himself well on all parts, and I've never heard of an Olo'eyktan chosen through the challenge that did not win at least _something_, but it is the judges who make the final decision. There are three, usually the Tsahik of the clan in question and experienced Olo'eyktans of two other clans, and they take into consideration not only the results of each competition, but Eywa's will, the…character…of the competitors, and the feelings and thoughts of the rest of the clan." He looked down at Jake for a minute. "Explain."

"Explain what?"

"Your thoughts on a challenge between us."

"Oh." He shrugged. "Well, I figure that even if I understand the questions on the history test, there's no way in hell I'll know the answers—and history is a lousy subject to try and BS, trust me, I'd know—so that one's yours. I can stay _on_ a pa'li at this point, but I can't do much else, so short of a miracle that's also yours. And you're a better hunter than I am. Three for you."

Tsu'tey couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride at Jake's easy acknowledgment of the last. For the first two…well, there was no point in feeling proud of knowing history songs that Jake would never have heard, and Neytiri hadn't spent a great deal of time on a pa'li herself after joining with Seze so Tsu'tey wasn't surprised that she hadn't taught Jake a much beyond the basics. But he'd seen enough of Jake's training to know that he was by no means a poor hunter in his own right, so it was…good…to have him acknowledge Tsu'tey's expertise.

"Depending on how often I'm allowed to use 'blow something up' as a solution, I might be okay on the scenario challenge," Jake continued, "but I haven't really done any of that kind of thing outside of mission planning. _Military_ mission planning. Somehow I kind of doubt that every scenario is combat-based. On ikran…." Another shrug. "Well, I'm assuming it would be rude of me to ask Toruk to eat your ikran—"

"_Yes_." Even if Tsu'tey wasn't sure that that was in the actual rules, given that no previous Toruk Makto had ever faced a challenge. Two had been Olo'eyktans of their clans when they had become Toruk Makto, one had been a second already promised to the future Tsahik, and the other two had sensibly chosen other mates.

"—so I really don't know how that would go," Jake finished with a grin, ignoring Tsu'tey's glare. "You've been at it longer, and I don't know how the judges measure skill, but I'm damn good in the air so I might have a fighting chance on that one."

That was a fair analysis, Tsu'tey admitted to himself after a minute of thought. Jake was an adept rider, especially when one considered how short a time he'd been doing it. Of course, Tsu'tey was hardly unskilled either, and he thought that he would win in the end, but he could not say with honesty that it was a certain thing. "And individual combat?"

"On that one I'd take you apart."

He frowned.

"I'd win," Jake clarified, no hesitation in his expression.

"You would not," he responded immediately, his pride stung. Granted that Jake had taken him down once—well, twice, technically, and far more easily than he cared to think about—but he hadn't precisely been in his best form at the time.

"Yeah, I would." Jake shook his head. "Look, no offense, but I've seen you and the other warriors sparring. Uh, practice fighting, I guess you'd say. I might not have participated, but I did watch. And I know what I can do after four plus years in the Marines. You would lose." He snorted. "Hell, if you remember, the last time you came at me I was in _this_ body, you were armed, and I still could have blinded you pretty damn easily."

Tsu'tey hissed at him, and after a minute, Jake held out a hand.

"Bet. When your leg is all healed up, and I'm back in my Avatar and have him back in shape, we spar. I say I can take you two falls out of three." He paused. "Actually I'd bet three out of three, but that's just being arrogant. And you probably do have a couple moves that I don't have counters for—yet, anyway—when you're actually thinking instead of just reacting."

Tsu'tey stared at his outstretched hand.

"Uh…a completely friendly no one's challenging anybody for anything except fun bet," Jake added after a minute, his arm still outstretched. "Because I don't care what you say; I'm _not_ getting myself involved in any leadership challenge. Especially since, like I said, I don't want the damn job!"

Norm grinned. "Jake, he doesn't know what you're doing. Tsu'tey, humans shake hands to make an agreement."

"Ah." That was still odd, but considerably less odd than thinking Jake was attempting to introduce himself again, he supposed. Tsu'tey considered for a minute and then closed a hand around Jake's cautiously. Apparently it was the appropriate thing to do, because Jake's grip tightened for a moment and then released. "A bet, then," Tsu'tey said with a nod. "We will…spar." He paused. "But whether you and I like it or not, we will still have to deal with the leadership challenge."

"You still haven't given me a good reason why."

"Because the mate of the Tsahik is the Olo'eyktan, and whether you wanted it or not, a challenge was given when you went and mated Neytiri."

Jake opened his mouth and then shut it again. "Damn. All right, fine, I guess that's a reason. And I don't suppose it matters that I really didn't mean to."

"What? Mate Neytiri?" Tsu'tey snorted. "You will have a very hard time convincing _anyone_ that you did not want that." He smirked. "And I wouldn't suggest saying it around Neytiri if you wish to live."

"What? No, that isn't—" Jake shook his head as Norm's snickers joined Tsu'tey's. "Very funny. That's not what I meant, and you both know it."

"So why don't you just pretend to fight?" Norm asked him. "I mean, just…don't win. Or don't try to win."

Tsu'tey frowned. Norm couldn't be suggesting—

Jake shook his head. "It's not…this is probably going to sound stupid, but I can't do that. If it comes to it, I can't _not_ do my best. It might be a crappy best—like on the history part—but I'd have to try."

"I would not wish to be chosen over someone who _wasn't_ trying," Tsu'tey added, glaring at Norm. Granted that the man was not a warrior, but Tsu'tey had hoped that he'd understood that incorrectly. There was no honor in such a suggestion.

"All right, all right." Norm held up his hands. "It was just an idea."

"A bad one."

"But the whole challenge thing is still dumb," Jake said, before Tsu'tey could say anything else. "You're the leader. And I told you, I'm good with that, I'm not the OCS type. I never meant to challenge anyone." He shook his head. "Look, if you were dead and there was no one else, _maybe_ then I'd be desperate enough to give it a try. But you aren't dead, and you don't seem like you're planning to die anytime soon, so why can't we just leave things the way they are?"

"The mate of the Tsahik is the Olo'eyktan." Tsu'tey repeated. He'd pointed out that fact several times while they were arguing as well, but who knew if Jake had actually heard him. He certainly hadn't understood very much of what Jake had been yelling. "With _very_ few exceptions, none of which have been anything like this situation, that is how it has always been."

"But Neytiri isn't the Tsahik. Not yet, anyway. Mo'at is."

Tsu'tey opened his mouth and then paused. Jake was correct, of course. Mo'at was Tsahik, and unless something changed radically, she would be for some time to come since Neytiri was no more fully trained than he was. "We could possibly _delay_ a challenge based on that," he agreed after a moment. The case of a Tsahik—or occasionally Olo'eyktan—continuing in their position after the death of their mate wasn't unheard of, and it was a perfectly acceptable case in which the Olo'eyktan and Tsahik were not a mated pair. "But when the title passes to Neytiri, it will not be a choice. And it would be best, for the good of the clan, to have it done sooner." Having the leadership continually in question would not make anyone feel secure. Himself included, although he didn't plan to mention that.

"All right, I guess I see your point," Jake said after a minute. "Chain of command and all that shit. So…what? We're just supposed to do this and hope that everyone agrees that you win?"

Tsu'tey flicked his tail. "Mo'at may have some ideas," he offered after a minute. In his worry about the challenge, he hadn't considered a case in which Jake would not _want_ to be Olo'eyktan, and since then he'd been too busy trying to drive it through the moron's head that the challenge wasn't a choice to really consider their options. It still wasn't a choice, no matter what Jake seemed to think, but since it seemed that he genuinely don't want the position…well, if Mo'at agreed, perhaps she could exert some influence on the other judges. Patak had seemed to take it as given that Jake—or, rather, Toruk Makto—would win, but considering some of the looks he'd given Jake when he'd actually _met_ him he may have reconsidered. Whatever the songs might say, he was not naive enough to believe that there hadn't been…favored…competitors in other challenges, and while he'd assumed that it would be Jake in this case, they could perhaps shift things towards him. Not to mention…. He cocked his head and then reached down to jab Jake's shoulder lightly. "If I win everything in the challenge, I believe they will have to agree."

Jake shook his head. "You might win on ikran, you _won't_ beat me in hand-to-hand."

"Yes, I will."

"No, you won't."

"Will."

"Won't." Jake grinned suddenly as Tsu'tey opened his mouth again. "Keep in mind, I grew up with a twin. I can keep this up all day."

"I think I'll just leave you two to channel those inner children, then," Norm interrupted. "Could you please try not to bring the building down around us this time?"

* * *

"Hey!"

Tsu'tey paused and looked back, still holding the door half-open, to see Jake fumbling with one of the masks with the hand that wasn't bound to his chest. He had been a little disappointed that Mo'at hadn't accompanied the healers today since he had hoped to speak to her about the challenge, but he did understand that she had other responsibilities. He should count himself fortunate that she'd visited as often as she had. And at least the healers, both Sky Person and Na'vi, had finally agreed that his leg had healed enough to allow him to get up and walk around again. With an even bulkier brace and horrific threats about what they would do if he did _anything_ to injure his leg again, but being able to do anything was better than lying on the bunk doing nothing. And since 'anything' in this case was seeing his ikran, since as he'd expected Jake was much more reasonable about such requests than the healers, so much the better.

"A little warning next time, yeah?" Jake asked, glaring up at Tsu'tey as he got the mask settled on his face.

"Sorry," Tsu'tey said as pushed the door open the rest of the way and ducked out into what Jake called the hanger, careful to keep his leg straight. There _was_ still some pain.

A happy shriek greeted him even as he opened his mouth to call for Denan, and he braced himself as she leaped down off a tower of metal to land in front of him. He made Tsaheylu automatically and received a torrent of _/concern/affection/loneliness/pleasure/annoyance/_ in return.

/I am here,/ he assured her automatically, wishing that he had a treat to offer her. /I am well. I am sorry you've been left alone for so long./ She bumped her head against his crutch lightly and then arched her neck to be scratched, and he obliged automatically. /_You_ are well? The Sky People did not hurt you?/

_/Affection/pleasure/disdain/_. She presented a wing, and he scowled as he ran a hand over the streaked scarring that had to have come from bullets. But the skin seemed to be healing well enough, and there were enough large bones lying around to assure him that she was still able to hunt and feed herself satisfactorily.

"Convince her that I'm not lunch so I can get that stack inventoried, would you?" Jake asked, wheeling in behind him.

Denan twisted to look over Tsu'tey's shoulder, hissing fiercely at him. _/Annoyance/displeasure/_ came strongly through the bond.

Jake glared at her in return. "Oh, trust me, I feel exactly the same way."

"You're upsetting her," Tsu'tey snapped as she hissed again.

"_I'm_ upsetting _her_? Which one of us could snap the other in half in one bite?"

Not that he looked at all intimidated, and Tsu'tey started to respond, but an impression of flight interrupted him. An impression of flight and eagerness, and he glanced out at the bright sky. He should not fly. He knew that he should not fly. He had barely been given permission to walk, after all, and he'd never be able to bend his leg into the correct position. Of course, if he only made a _short_ flight, surely he could manage to avoid stressing his injury. He could balance that leg over her back and hold on with his arms and the other easily enough, and….

"You better go if you're going to go," Jake said with a grin. "But for the record, if the docs catch you, I had _nothing_ to do with this."


	13. Flight

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. _

_/speech/=Na'vi_

_

* * *

_

Denan dove, and Tsu'tey felt her joy mingling with his as they skimmed across the landscape—such as it was, so close to the Sky People's compound—before banking sharply upwards as they approached the edge of the forest. He hadn't managed to find a way to ride properly, but then again, he hadn't really expected to. By stretching almost prone against her back, bracing himself up in front with his arms and holding on to the back of the riding pad with the toes of his uninjured foot, he was able to rest his injured leg against the riding pad itself and keep it from being jarred too badly. It still wasn't a particularly _comfortable_ position, and he knew that she felt his discomfort through the link despite his attempts to shield her from it, but both were in agreement that it was still far, far better than being grounded.

Another dive, this time nearly brushing the tops of the trees, and he felt himself relax further. This was how people were _supposed_ to live, not trapped inside little white-walled boxes where there was barely even room to stand properly. She rose again, and he shook his head. No wonder the Sky People were all insane.

He had no particular destination in mind, and the next time she dove, she broke through the tree canopy. It was low here since all the decently-sized trees had been cut back, but she swept her way among the trunks, neatly dodging any and all branches, anyway. The passes weren't nearly so close as they could have made—would have made if they'd wished to challenge themselves—but for now it as enough to be flying together again.

Over, under, round, and about; if it hadn't been for the twinges of pain from his arms and leg from holding himself in such an awkward position, he could almost put all the stresses of the past few days out of his mind. Could almost forget about Sky People, about their weapons, about challenges….

The trees grew thicker as they approached a small offshoot of the river that ran near the Sky People's compound, and Denan swept her wings downward and brought them up above the tree canopy again. A reflection from the nearest moon caught his eye, and he stared at it in surprise for a moment before banking her around and back towards the compound with a thought. They'd been flying for over an hour now, closer to two, actually, as the Sky People termed time, and as much as he wanted to, it would be best not to press his luck. If he was discovered, he wouldn't be flying again for who knew how long. _Months_, probably. His mother still hadn't returned his bow. Then again, if they had their way he probably wouldn't be allowed to fly for months anyway, so...

Another wingbeat sent them up even further, to a height where air currents carried them along effortlessly, and he sighed when the Sky People's compound came back into sight. That had taken far less time than he would have liked.

Denan twisted to hiss at him as he urged her towards it, /_disgust_/_reluctance_/ clear in her mind, but after a minute of insistence, they dove again. Her irritation came through clearly as she made no attempt to slow her dive before they entered the hanger, instead waiting until they were almost on top of Jake before banking. The sharp change of direction caused Tsu'tey's chest to bounce against her back, and it took him a moment to get his breath back.

When it did, he hissed a reprimand at her, but she just flipped her wings and settled herself a bit more comfortably on the platform railing. A definite impression of /_satisfaction_/_serves-you-right/_ echoed clearly through the bond.

"Wasn't sure you were coming back," Jake said without looking up from the screen.

Denan hissed down at him, sending sharp /_disdain_/_displeasure_/.

Jake scowled at her. "Who was talking to you?"

"Stop annoying her," Tsu'tey ordered automatically. Whatever Jake had to say to that, Tsu'tey ignored it as he made an awkward dismount, bracing against the railing of the platform until Jake passed his crutch over. Pain shot up _both_ legs as he leaned over to grab it—apparently his muscles had been more affected by the position he'd had to hold throughout the flight than he'd realized—but he pushed it aside. "As much as I would have liked to go all the way to Hometree, it is not possible yet." Even discounting the reaction of the healers if he tried such a thing, and the fact that he still had the Sky People's metal casing around the break in his leg, he doubted that he could maintain that flight position long enough. Not to mention that while the location of the new Hometree had been described to him, a description was a very different than having flown the exact route before.

"Fair enough." Jake's voice was flat, and he didn't look up again as he tapped the screen and then swiveled his chair around and reached for a panel beside him. "It'll be dark soon. We'd better get back inside before someone comes looking."

Tsu'tey grimaced and then turned back to Denan. /I must go, now./

She reared back, hissing slightly. /_Displeasure/annoyance_/.

/I will return tomorrow./ He reached up to scratch her neck. /You should hunt now, before dark comes./

/_Loneliness_/.

/You must be hungry, and I will return as soon as I can. You will be fine until then./

/_DISPLEASURE,_/ and her head snaked around and she snapped at his arm.

/_Enough_. Go./

He gave her a push to emphasize his order, even if it had no hope of actually moving her anywhere, and with one last hiss and a blast of /_ANNOYANCE_/ as he broke Tsaheylu, she shrieked and flung herself off the platform.

"That sounded happy," Jake said. "She's not thrilled that you're going back inside?"

"Neither of us are." He shook his head, watching until she disappeared from sight, and then turned to Jake. "How do we get down? This was on the floor when we came in." _He_ could climb, but….

When Jake didn't answer, Tsu'tey glanced over at him and found his eyes fixed on the skyline where Denan had disappeared.

"Jake?"

"Hm? Oh." He glanced over at Tsu'tey and then shook himself and turned his attention back to the panel, slapping his hand down on one of the buttons. The platform lurched and then began to sink downwards.

Tsu'tey grabbed the railing and hissed sharply at Jake.

"Sorry." Not that he sounded particularly sorry. "You know, the two of you sound an awful lot alike. You and Denan, I mean."

"She will bite you if I ask her to."

That got a quick smile, although it disappeared as quickly as it had come. "Oh, I'm pretty sure she's going to bite me at some point anyway."

Possibly true, especially since Jake insisted on looking her in the eye, and Tsu'tey snorted and refrained from commenting.

The platform sank slowly back down to the floor, the supports collapsing in on themselves as it went, and after a minute of observation, Tsu'tey decided that it was an interesting contraption. Totally useless if one had any climbing ability at all, of course, but for someone in Jake's situation he supposed he could see the value. And at least it wasn't enclosed like the elevator had been.

When it finally came to a halt he stepped down and turned back to wait for Jake. Who was staring out at the sky again, and it was a moment before his eyes focused forward and he rolled down the short ramp. And a few moments later, they were back into the Sky People's building with its overly-thin and odd-smelling air. Tsu'tey would _much_ rather have stayed with Denan.

Jake must have caught his grimace as he pulled off his mask, because he shook his head. "Just be glad you aren't stuck wearing one of those things." He set the pack and the screen he'd been using on the shelf by the door and reached up to hang the mask on the peg above it, only to scowl as the peg proved to be just out of reach. Before he could do more than glance at the sling on his other arm, Tsu'tey caught his uninjured shoulder and lifted him the necessary few inches.

Eyes flashed as Jake glared over his shoulder at Tsu'tey even as he shoved the mask into place, and when Tsu'tey dropped him back down into his chair, he brought it around with an easy twist and a scowl. "I told you—"

The chair rolled forwards quickly—much more quickly than Tsu'tey had expected—and Tsu'tey snarled and whisked his tail out of danger as his hands clenched into fists.

Jake's expression didn't even shift although he did wheel himself backwards again, taking himself out of Tsu'tey's immediate reach. "I told you I'd wheel over your tail."

He hadn't actually wheeled over it, Tsu'tey recognized, just wheeled far enough to give it a pinch, but he snarled again anyway. "That wasn't funny."

Dangerous anger flashed in Jake's eyes. "I _don't _like being picked up. _Especially_ without warning."

Tsu'tey opened his mouth and then shut it again. Irritated or not, Jake did have a point. He wouldn't like it either. Of course, he wouldn't have done it without warning if Jake would be reasonable about accepting help, and it still wasn't a good reason to go wheeling over a person's _tail, so..._. He glared. "Don't do that again."

"Same to you." He glared for a minute longer and then closed his eyes and sighed, shaking his head slightly. "Come on, I'll show you where the mess is. You're probably hungry."

"You aren't?"

The anger had faded, but his face was still blank. "Not right now."

* * *

Tsu'tey twisted to look back at the once-again rapidly-dwindling building and was surprised to see a glint of sunlight reflecting back at him. He'd seen similar reflections from Jake's mask before, but the only people he'd seen in the mess this morning had been Norm and Marie and another man he'd only met in passing who'd given his name as Eric, and he'd made his way to the hanger alone.

He brought Denan around—much to her displeasure since they'd only been up for a few minutes—but if it was a healer, he might as well find out now. Of course, finding out wasn't the same as landing, and if they intended to forbid him from flying until his leg was healed, he was going to make this flight last as long as possible. No matter what anyone ordered. There were no Na'vi healers here who could _force _him to land.

It was just Jake, though, Jake without a sling on his arm, and Tsu'tey asked Denan to land on the railing.

"Hey," Jake greeted, ignoring the hiss she gave in return. "I was just going to finish inventory. Figured you two would be long gone by now."

"We were just leaving. Your arm is healed, then?"

"According to the docs I'm as good as new." Jake held up both hands in demonstration and then shrugged. "Or as good as I'm going to get, anyway. And also a pain in the ass and a couple other things I'm not going to repeat, but that's not really news. You made it here on your own, then?"

With two wrong turns, hence arriving a bit later than usual, but he'd figured his errors out quickly enough that he saw no need to mention them. He nodded slightly. "I did not think that Norm would be helpful."

"Nah, he likes to cooperate with the docs for some reason." Jake looked out at the sky for a long moment and then gave Tsu'tey a half-smile before nodding at Denan. "She's getting impatient. More so than usual, I mean. You should probably go."

Lack of sling or not, Jake wasn't going anywhere, Tsu'tey realized abruptly. 'Healed' for him meant being able to get around the base a little easier since he could use both arms, but there was nothing beyond that. Well, unless he wanted to take one of the AMPs out, but that hardly counted. He'd seen Jake staring out at the sky before—every time he'd accompanied Tsu'tey to the hanger in fact—but this was the first time that that fact had occurred to him, and it suddenly seemed unfair. And it made Jake's occasional…irritation…after visits to the hanger make much more sense.

Jake's eyes flicked upwards one last time before he directed his attention to the screen in his lap, and Tsu'tey's frown turned considering. In this body Jake wasn't any heavier than a child, and since he couldn't fly properly right now _anyway_…. With a quick thought for Denan—she wasn't very happy about the idea, but then she wasn't very happy about his insistence that she refrain from taking any bites out of Jake either—he grinned. "If you wheel over my tail again, I will drop you."

Jake looked back up at him. "What?"

Tsu'tey took advantage of his momentary confusion to grab the nearest arm and pull him up out of his wheelchair and astride Denan's neck, The screen clattered to the ground and Jake made a sound that was half shout and half curse, but Tsu'tey ignored him as he shifted his grip and sent Denan dropping off the platform and then winging skyward out of the hanger.

An unexpectedly strong hand closing on the forearm that Tsu'tey had wrapped around Jake's chest while the other braced against Denan's neck, and Tsu'tey glanced down as Jake twisted to look up at him. "What?"

"Oh, I don't know, a little _warning_, maybe?"

Tsu'tey's grin grew. "I didn't think you would object."

Denan gained height quickly, and he checked his balance—and his grip—as a sense of /_challenge_/_amusement_/ reached him.

"Okay, I guess I that's true," Jake started, "but that's not the p—_shit_!"

Tsu'tey snickered as Denan dropped them into a corkscrewing dive.

"Not funny. _Seriously_ not funny," Jake insisted as she finally leveled out, although the fact that he was speaking through laughter gave the lie to his words. "Was that her twisted sense of humor or yours?" He shook his head and didn't wait for Tsu'tey to answer. "You know, never mind. Don't tell me." He went silent for a minute, and then, "You got a decent grip?"

"Yes." Aside from the fact that he wasn't in the habit of sending friends to their deaths, he had grown up with Neytiri and he had a very good idea of how much pain he would find himself in if he dropped her mate. Even accidentally.

Jake released his grip on Tsu'tey's arm and rearranged the pack attached to his mask quickly before pulling his legs up, one after the other, so he was in something of a kneeling position and they were no longer knocking repeatedly against Denan's neck. The action went a little way towards appeasing her irritation, although Tsu'tey wasn't at all surprised to feel her gaining height again and heading towards the forest

He cautioned her quickly since not only did _he_ still have to balance against her back rather than riding properly, he also had to hold Jake in place, and after some insistence he finally got /_annoyance_/_agreement_/ in return. How much agreement was always in question, of course, given that she had a mind of her own, and he tightened his grip as she dove again.

They weren't able to stay out long—holding Jake in place didn't take that much more effort than balancing himself did, but despite Jake's efforts to help, it did take more—and he hid a wince as the muscles in his forearm trembled when he lowered Jake back into his wheelchair. Spending so much of his time lying about had sapped his strength in a ridiculous manner, and even his clandestine flights and open walks weren't doing nearly enough to help him rebuild it. He would be very glad when his leg was healed and he could return to the normal routine of a warrior.

"Thanks," Jake said, as Tsu'tey dropped him back down into wheelchair. "I didn't think I'd be doing that again for…well, quite awhile."

Tsu'tey shrugged it off. "You're welcome. But if you roll over my tail again, I will hurt you."

"You mentioned that." He shrugged. "It's fair."

"And Denan might—" He broke off, frowning.

"Denan might what?" Jake frowned. "Tsu'tey?"

"Even a full viperwolf pack would keep its distance from a healthy ikran."

"Well, yeah, I'd hope so. I mean, I can't say I'm real fond of the little beasts, but they never struck me as stupid."

Tsu'tey hissed at him. It was an obvious solution; they both should have seen it before. "Denan could fly us to those mines easily enough."

Jake opened his mouth and then shut it again. "Damn. That would work, wouldn't it?" He paused. "Some of them are a pretty decent distance out, though. Can you hang on that long?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not stupid, Tsu'tey. I doubt I weigh anywhere near enough to bother her, and I'm pretty much self-loading baggage at this point—hell, not even self-loading, I guess—so it's not likely to do me any damage, but you're the one who has to balance it all. That flight we just made got rough on you towards the end."

"If she would not to make repeated dives, it would be easier," he admitted. "And it may require practice." And some time spent regaining his strength. Besides which, he would require a bow before he would be willing to land on the forest floor. His mother would return in a few days; he would make the argument then. And if Mo'at was with her, perhaps they could speak of a way to deal with the challenge as well. That would be...satisfying. Even if it still left the matter of the Sky People.

* * *

"Oh, _crap_," Jake said suddenly, twisting in his grip.

"What?" Denan hadn't done anything exclamation-worthy; this only a test flight to see how long they could stay up without any acrobatics. Or, more accurately, a test to see how long Tsu'tey could maintain a safe grip and balance. But they hadn't been up long enough to cause him any discomfort yet.

"Look."


	14. Hiding Out

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_I got a question about where Denan came from. We know from the movie that Tsu'tey had an ikran, but I couldn't find any canon information on it beyond its coloring. So, in this story, his ikran is female, she survived the battle mostly intact, and her name is Denan. _

_Before anyone says anything, a friend of mine did point out (a little late), that according to the language guides that exist, the Na'vi language isn't supposed to have 'd's'. However, since most of the time when they said Jake's name I heard it as Djake, I'm thinking the sound gets in there somewhere. Or, possibly, my hearing is just going. Either way, for the purposes of this story, her name is going to stay Denan._

_/speech/ = Na'vi_

* * *

Tsu'tey sucked in his breath sharply, and a half-finished thought sent Denan into a sharp dive, putting them neatly in the shadow of the Sky People's building. There were four ikran above them, and while he couldn't make out exactly whose ikran they were since the angle of the sun obscured their coloring, he could see clearly enough that they had riders. And since they were headed for the Sky People's compound with obvious purpose, he could make several good guesses as to their identity.

"Um…hide," Jake said, his neck still craned to look upwards.

Tsu'tey hissed down at him. "What an excellent idea, I would never have thought of that. Hide _where_?" If they left the shadow of the Sky People's building to go into the forest, he would be flying an ikran with primarily blue and violet coloring over a vast stretch of _brown_ ground. The riders above would have to be either blind or fools to miss them. Cutting around to the hanger entrance would also take them out of the building's shadow and in that case almost directly into the riders' path….they might have a chance if they landed in the shadows and remained still, but it was no certain thing. Especially if the ikran circled at all before making a landing.

"The Avatar compound," Jake said.

Tsu'tey barely spared him a glance. Their best bet was probably landing in the shadows. If they stayed behind Denan, or under her wings, a casual observer might think that she was just sunning herself. Of course, if they were in the shadows, she'd be sunning herself in the shade which was just absurd, and—

"Tsu'tey, the Avatar compound," Jake repeated, this time giving Tsu'tey's forearm a sharp squeeze at the same time. "It's just around the corner; you've probably seen it from the air before. We can hide in the shelter and sneak back in through the hanger after they've all gone inside."

'Just around the corner' _was_ closer than trying to sneak off to the forest, and the less time they spent flying over barren ground where they were clearly visible the better, Tsu'tey decided. And since the corner Jake indicated was in the opposite direction that the ikran were coming in from…. With a shake of his head, he sent Denan winging around the edge of the building.

He _had_ seen this place from the air, he realized as they approached, but he'd had no reason to dive on this side of the building so he'd never examined it particularly closely. Unlike the rest of the Sky People's compound, this building was quite small and open on all sides. And there was actually greenery around it, and if it was arranged in strange patterns…well, any greenery was a definite improvement over the rest of this place.

A few moments later, Denan alighted inside. At his insistence. She wasn't at all happy about it, though, and he understood immediately as he saw the bodies lying in the bunks. Lying as though dead. /What in—/ His first thought was that they were Na'vi, but they were dressed in Sky People costumes and the smell wasn't quite right, so—

"They're Avatars," Jake said quickly. "And relax, they're alive."

Tsu'tey cocked his head. He had no reason to believe that Jake was lying, but they were all so _still_. But…well, there were tubes going into them, and the strings of metal called wires as well, attached to their heads and chests. Chests that, when he looked closely, did seem to be rising and falling just the slightest amount.

"They're alive," Jake repeated. "And I kind of need those ribs, so ease up, would you?"

Tsu'tey glanced down and then relaxed his grip with a muttered apology. "What's wrong with them then?"

"Nothing, but like I said, they're Avatars. Specifically the scientists' Avatars. And since the scientists can't transfer into them any more than I can transfer into mine with all the pods out of commission, the bodies are just sleeping all the time."

"Why the tubes, then?"

Jake shrugged. "How long could you last without food? These bodies are the same way. If they aren't fed, they'll just waste away and die."

"So they're like the ones they put in me." They did seem to attach in the same way, at least.

"Yeah. Well, that and then there's a lot of monitoring going on." Jake waved a hand at the small machines beside each bunk that the wires ran into. "For a while they—the scientists—were talking about bringing the Avatars inside and putting them in the barracks or something, just so it would be easier to get to them if anything went wrong, but since the monitoring equipment was already out here and it's not _that_ easy to move a bunch of 350-pound bodies …." He shrugged. "I told them I could do it with an AMP easily enough, but I think they were afraid that I'd damage them by accident. Which is kind of silly since the AMPs are used to handle explosives that are a whole lot more sensitive, but…." Another shrug. "I guess if something _does_ go wrong, the monitors will sound the alarm and they can worry about getting whoever's it is inside and fixed then."

"But yours is not here?" Tsu'tey checked. "Your Avatar?" He remembered Jake saying that his Dreamwalker body had been taken to the new Hometree, but there was none of this equipment there. At least there shouldn't be, and even for Jake, he would not be happy to learn differently.

"No, but he's getting soup dumped into him a couple times a day in place of feeding tubes," Jake said, apparently understanding his question. "I told Mo'at that she could just drop him off here and the scientists would take care of everything until the pods are fixed—or until we can try the ceremony, whichever comes first—but she said 'no' pretty damn firmly."

Tsu'tey could understand her position since having Toruk Makto _with_ the clan, even if he remained asleep, would be good for morale, but he still found the idea bizarre.

With a frown he swung Jake down onto the first unoccupied bunk and then slid off Denan's back himself. He didn't have his crutch with him, but the posts at the end of the bunk served him well enough to brace against.

The /_displeasure_/_fear_/ he felt through the bond with Denan increased exponentially as he dismounted, and after impressing upon her the need to return shortly, he broke Tsaheylu and let her take to the air again. She had been here for as long as he had, after all; no doubt the healers had seen her flying around alone before.

"Uh, she'll be back, right?" Jake asked, twisting to watch her go. "Because there's no way in hell that I can drag myself all the way back to the hanger before someone notices that I'm missing, and I don't think trying to hop back would end so well for you either."

"Of course she will return for us. And soon. But she does not like it in here." In truth, all of the too-still bodies made him uneasy as well. He considered the nearest one with a frown, leaning over to examine the face. "This is Carla's." As he'd already noted, it was wearing a version of the Sky Peoples' garments, but now that he looked closer he saw the hands and feet with the extra fingers and toes, as well as the ridges of hair over her eyes where there should only have been skin. He poked one thin arm lightly. "There is no strength here."

"Yeah, well, muscle atrophy's kind of a bitch."

"Muscle…?"

"Atrophy." Jake shrugged, dragging himself around until he was seated on the edge of the bunk with his legs hanging over the edge. "Muscles are use-it-or-lose-it, and since the Avatars have just been lying here since the battle…." Another shrug. "It's like how your arms aren't as strong as you expect them to be since you haven't been using them as much as you normally would. Or like there's no muscle left in my legs anymore."

The last was said with some reluctance, and Tsu'tey shrugged as well and then poked the Carla-Avatar's arm again. "Your Dreamwalker body will be like this also then?"

Jake grimaced. "Probably. Hopefully not quite as bad since I'll be starting out with more muscle in the first place, but it won't be pretty. And I thought it was a pain getting him into shape the first time around."

Tsu'tey twisted to look at him. "You call 'in shape' what you were when you first came to us?" He sneered. "_Weak_. You called yourself a warrior, but you could not have stood against a child."

"Hey, I managed to outrun a Thantor—Palulukan—so shut it," Jake retorted. "And anyway, that was all of my second day in my damn Avatar with what the _scientists_ called good muscle tone, which isn't my definition by any stretch of the imagination. Like I said, you should see what they call a good obstacle course."

Tsu'tey stared at him for a minute longer and then turned away to hide a grin. Since Neytiri had been tasked with Jake's training when he'd first come to them, it had been her duty to make him fit to the standards of a Na'vi hunter. But since he was a warrior now, he was quite firmly in _Tsu'tey's_ jurisdiction, and while Jake had become a friend, he knew himself well enough to know that he'd enjoy harassing him until he was up to par.

"You know, if you think your leg's going to be in any better shape, you're dreaming," Jake said.

Tsu'tey twisted back to face him. "What?"

"I don't know if you've ever had any broken bones before, but I busted both my arms growing up. One when I was seven, and then the other when I was about thirteen. And even with regen treatments, when a cast comes off, there ain't much muscle left."

"So it becomes a test to see which of us gets back first, then," he said, seeing an echo of the same challenge in Jake's eyes.

Jake grinned. "Looks like."

Tsu'tey poked the Carla-Avatar one last time and then hopped the step-and-a-half necessary to take a seat on the empty bunk beside Jake. There wasn't a great deal they could do besides wait for Denan to return, unfortunately…it was just a matter of sitting here and hoping that their absence wasn't noticed.

"Oh, _crap_," Jake said suddenly.

"What?" He paused. "It is not helpful when you say things like that." Nor did it ever seem to lead to anything good.

"Sorry. But I just realized my wheelchair is just sitting there on top of the platform in the hanger."

"Yes." Tsu'tey frowned at him. "So is my crutch. We will return to them when Denan returns to us."

"Yeah, but while the healers might pass off your crutch lying around as just you being stupid about using it, if they see an empty wheelchair, they're not likely to take it as a sign that I went off dancing."

Tsu'tey frowned and then broke into a grin. "No, but they might believe that Denan ate you."

"Oh, thanks, that's very helpful."

"It is likely that they will land their ikran outside the hanger." Denan might be willing to sleep inside it, but he doubted that many other ikran would be so accommodating. "They may not even see it."

"I guess we can hope."

He didn't sound particularly hopeful, and Tsu'tey shrugged. There was nothing that could be done about it now. "Why are there empty bunks?" he asked after a minute.

"Well, not all of them were occupied in the first place, but that one down there is mine," Jake said, pointing towards one on the far end. "Although I only got to use it a grand total of once. And that's Norm's beside it." He paused. "And this was Grace's." He indicated the bunk they were sitting on and then reached out and touched an image attached to the wall at the head of the bunk lightly.

Tsu'tey cocked his head and then leaned down to look over Jake's shoulder. He remembered when Grace had first brought a camera to the school…this image had to have been from about that same time. Toktor Grace was recognizable enough, that was Tezan beside her, and it looked like Eykir behind him. He shook his head. It did not feel that it had been that long ago, but they both looked so _young_.

He shifted upright again. "She was…important…to you." It wasn't a question—that had been perfectly obvious during the attempt to transfer her completely into her Dreamwalker body, and even more so when the attempt failed—but Jake shrugged and answered anyway.

"We didn't hit it off so good, but...yeah, I guess we got used to each other after a while." He grinned. "She didn't take shit from anybody, which, scientist or not, I could respect."

"Your brother was a scientist and yet you can say that?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't _dislike_ scientists. I mean, Norm is cool, and Max, and most of the others. But they do tend to get on my nerves sometimes. And for the record, being brothers didn't mean that Tommy and I didn't annoy the hell out of each other sometimes too." His grin grew. "Back when we were kids, whenever we ran into something new, his first reaction was always to ask a million questions about it. My first reaction was usually some variation on 'hey, let's poke it with a stick and see what happens.' It's probably a good thing that I could kick his ass in a fight, because otherwise I think he'd have murdered me long before we reached adulthood."

"The one time I did that with an insect that I hadn't seen before, Sylwanin smacked me right out of the tree," Tsu'tey admitted. It hadn't cured his occasional desire do such things, but it had gone a long way towards curing him of acting on them.

That got an easy laugh. "Nice."

"What—'hit it off'?" He was pretty sure that he hadn't heard that phrase before.

Jake shrugged. "Our first meeting didn't go so well. To the point where I think I actually enjoyed meeting _you_ more than I enjoyed meeting Grace."

"I wanted to kill you," Tsu'tey pointed out. "I very nearly did so."

"Yeah, well, okay, knocking me off the branch really wasn't cool, but I'm not so sure that her thoughts were that far off murder either. And at least you didn't make any smartass cracks about my dead twin."

"I didn't know that you had had a brother when we met."

Jake shrugged and then glanced sideways, reaching out to touch the image again.

"You are not at fault for her death," Tsu'tey said after a moment.

"Yeah I am. Oh, I didn't fire the gun, but if it hadn't been for my stupid legs and her and Norm having to lift me in, she would have been inside the Sampson before me. Where Quaritch couldn't touch her. I'm the soldier; _I'm _supposed to take the risks. And then afterwards…." He shook his head. "I've seen friends die gut-shot before; I knew how bad it was as soon as I saw the wound. She did too. Tried to pretend, but…." Another shake. "I should have been faster."

"You rode Toruk. I don't think that's something that can be rushed."

Jake shook his head a third time, and then again, more sharply, before looking up. "Hey, Sylwanin was Neytiri's sister, right?"

"Yes." That was an odd change of subject, but Jake clearly didn't want to talk about Grace anymore, so he let it go.

"What happened to her? I saw Grace's schoolhouse…she wouldn't say anything about it, Max wouldn't say much, and I wasn't about to push Neytiri, but there's no way in hell that that wasn't a targeted attack."

"She was killed." He opened and closed his hand against the bunk, remembering that day. "You knew _that_, though, yes?"

"Yeah, I figured that much out, thanks. Just can't get a handle on why."

"It was several years ago. One of the what you call bulldozers rolled through Anzuri."

"What's Ansurey?"

"Anzuri," he corrected automatically and then shook his head and made a dismissive gesture. "It is not important; it's just what we called a place where we used to play when we were all children together. But the bulldozer went through on its way to wherever they were sending it, and..."

"I know what a dozer does," Jake said.

Tsu'tey nodded slightly. "Anzuri was destroyed. Completely. And the things we had buried there…shells from the sea, pebbles from the river, interesting twists of bark and wood that we had found…it was all gone. There was nothing of value to anyone but us, but…it _did_ have value to us." He glanced down at Jake, who nodded in understanding. "I was a warrior by then also, but I wasn't with them when they found what was left of it. Sylwanin, and also Riytan and Pennat. They were very angry. The tawtute had no right to be there, the bulldozer had no right to be there..." It was his turn to shake his head. Anger still burned in _him _when he thought of those ruins, even though it had been years before and much worse had happened since. "They decided to destroy the bulldozer before it could do any more damage. Eytukan had not agreed to this—and I do not believe he would have, if he had known—but they decided to do it anyway. And so they took their weapons and attacked the next morning. Without having told anyone of their plans."

"Shit," Jake muttered. "I guess you can stop there; I've got a pretty good idea of how the rest of the story goes."

"They succeeded in setting fire to it, but the tawtute warriors followed them back to the schoolhouse afterwards," Tsu'tey continued anyway. "They had not expected such a response, and they thought Toktor Grace could help them."

"Not if they torched a dozer. Quaritch—and Selfridge—would have had a fit, and it wouldn't have mattered _what_ she said."

He nodded. "The children at the schoolhouse were all able to escape back to Hometree safely, but Riytan, Sylwanin, and Pennat were killed. Riytan and Sylwanin immediately; Pennat survived long enough to tell the story of what had happened." Just. It had been a frightening thing to see, even for a warrior.

Jake shook his head. "Crap. Of all the _stupid_ things to do."

Tsu'tey snarled, and he held up a hand.

"Relax, I wasn't talking about Sylwanin and the others. Well, going after the dozer wasn't such a great idea either, but at least I can understand that."

"Oh, man, are you two in _trouble_," an entirely too familiar voice said from behind them before Tsu'tey could say anything.


	15. In Trouble

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_Quick update, although I'm not sure when I'll be able to get the next chapter up, so enjoy._

_From the last chapter, as far as Grace having told Jake about the school (or at least that she may tell him on the DVD release), even if they do include more than just the see-the-bullet-holes part of the scene, I doubt it'll be a very in-depth conversation. Partially for time, and partially because given how the two characters felt about each other at that point during the story, I'm not sure Grace would go too far into it. Her comment about idiots with guns springs to mind. So I don't feel too bad about elaborating from the Na'vi side, even if the details might not match exactly._

* * *

"I mean, seriously, have either of you ever even _heard_ of the concept of self-preservation?" Norm demanded. "'Take a short walk,' is not the same as 'Go to visit the Avatars.'"

"What—but how did you know to look for us here?" Jake demanded.

A question that Tsu'tey very much wanted to know the answer to as well, and he glared down at Norm. To absolutely no effect, as Norm just crossed his arms over his chest and glared right back.

"Uh, I don't know. Maybe the cameras?" He shook his head and uncrossed his arms, climbing up onto the bunk with them and waving at a small box on the wall across from them.

"Damn it," Jake muttered.

"You seriously never noticed the pan-and-scan feed from in here when you were in the control center?" Norm asked.

"I…yeah, I guess I did, but I never really thought much about it. I mean, the Avatars are asleep." He shook his head. "What the hell kind of peeping Toms were the RDA security guys, anyway?"

"They were just trying to keep an eye on their gajillion-dollar investments, probably," Norm said with a shrug. "Anyway, you'd better get back inside before someone _else_ notices those screens and decides to murder you both. Talia took watch after me, and last I heard she was busy talking to someone at Hometree about viperwolf nesting behaviors or something like that, but all it would take is a glance at the wrong screen." He craned his neck to look over the other edge of the bunk. "How did the two of you get out here, anyway? I don't see a crutch, and I definitely don't see a wheelchair."

"Wait, you're the only one who knows we're here?" Jake asked, ignoring his question.

Norm shrugged. "Right now, yeah, but I wouldn't bet on that lasting very long."

Jake glanced up at Tsu'tey. "You know, if we kill him and feed him to your ikran…."

"Then we can sneak back in and no one will ever know," Tsu'tey finished with a grin.

"You could try, but I guarantee that I can outrun the both of you right now. And anyway, someone would notice me missing." It was his turn to grin. "For some reason they all like me much better than you. Something about fewer migraines."

"He might have a point," Jake said after a minute.

"Maybe. But Denan would enjoy getting to eat at least _one_ of you."

"Hm. Decisions, decisions."

"You're hilarious," Norm said, shaking his head. "Can we go inside now please? Before someone sees the screen, decides that I'm a co-conspirator in this mess, and comes to murder me too." He looked around the building quickly, as though he expected one of the healers to jump out from behind one of the beds, and then shook his head again. "Anyway, don't either of you find this kind of creepy?"

Tsu'tey echoed the movement, not bothering to answer as he called sharply for Denan. It should be safe enough to go back; the others had had plenty of time to get inside by now. Of course, depending on how far Denan had gone, there was no guarantee that she'd hear him, but—

It didn't seem to be an issue, though, as she landed inside with a heavy downbeat and a shriek that neatly drowned out whatever Norm yelled, and Norm stared at her for a moment before looking back at Tsu'tey. "You didn't." Pause. "No, never mind, I'm sure you did. And I thought the two of you having _walked_ out here sounded like a bad idea. Jake, do I even want to ask?"

"I hitched a ride."

"With…." He opened his mouth and then shut it again. "Right. Of course. You're both nuts. I mean, full on insane. Tsu'tey, you do _realize_ that you're injured, right?"

As though he could have forgotten. He hissed lightly. "I can ride an ikran easily enough with one leg and two arms. And he doesn't weigh any great amount."

Norm snorted. "And do you think that will keep Carla or Max from strangling you if they find out? Or Neytiri?" He paused for a minute. "Or your _mother_? I mean, she already hates Jake's guts."

"Hey, wait a minute," Jake interrupted. "What did I do?"

"You mean other than screwing with your arm? Again?" Norm turned his gaze away from Tsu'tey to glare at Jake. "The stitches might be out, but you're still not supposed to be stressing it and you know it. And I know none of the docs told him where the hanger his ikran was staying in was, seeing as they told me specifically not to, which means that that had to be you too."

"Okay, fine, what did I do aside from the obvious? I mean, she doesn't even know about that stuff yet."

"Other than that, I'm not really sure, actually. But she really doesn't like you." He shrugged. "You probably insulted her grandmother or something. You did a lot of that before we got your greetings straightened out."

"Great."

He didn't dispute the statement though, and Tsu'tey snickered.

Jake shifted his scowl from Norm to him. "Oh, who asked you?"

That didn't exactly quiet his snickers, but after a minute he broke off with a slight shrug. "You may have insulted someone, I don't know, but she was more concerned about the challenge the last time I spoke to her." Concerned about the challenge and its effects on him, but he would not bring that up now. With another shake of his head, he made Tsaheylu with a somewhat agitated Denan—she still didn't like this place, nor was she very happy about having two Sky People so close—and swung up onto her back. "He is right, however. We should go."

Jake caught his arm when Tsu'tey offered it, and Tsu'tey lifted him into place. "See you inside, Norm," Jake said.

Norm stared at them for a moment. "I'm not seeing this. I'm totally not seeing this. I had absolutely nothing to do with any of this, and when the two of you get slaughtered, I will most _definitely_ say, 'I told you so.'"

Despite his statement, he didn't look away as Denan took to the air seconds later, and Tsu'tey glanced down at Jake. "Do you think he will tell?"

"What?" Jake twisted to look up at him. "Nah. Well, at least not as long as we both make it back inside in one piece, anyway. He's no rat." He turned back around, leaning forward to look past Denan's neck. "I don't see any other ikran, thou—oh, _crap_."

* * *

"Ma'am, no, ma'am." Jake's voice was completely flat, and when Tsu'tey glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jake's hands still locked on the wheels of his chair and his face fixed forward. Tsu'tey didn't think that he'd moved a muscle since this whole thing had started.

For his part, Tsu'tey didn't even try to respond to the sharp question—it wasn't as though it mattered what he said anyway—and he returned his gaze to on the ground in front of him as his mother took over the lecture again. If this kept up much longer, his ears were going to be _permanently_ pinned back.

Bad enough to have had to land on the platform with his decidedly irate mother standing on the floor below him glaring upwards. Worse to have had to wait for what had felt like an eternity for said platform to sink to the floor so he could actually face her. But then, most horrifying of all, when she'd turned to escort them inside, he'd realized that Mo'at had been with her the entire time. Mo'at who had also clearly known that he—_they_—were still considered injured and weren't supposed to be pushing themselves too much, given the expression on her face.

Tsu'tey still wasn't entirely sure why the two of them had remained in the hanger after the others had gone in—although they were both getting older so it was possible that they'd just wanted to sit and rest for a bit after the flight—but no matter why they'd remained, the end result was the same for he and Jake. As soon as they were inside the Sky People's compound, the shouting had started. A great deal of shouting. Followed by a lecture. And whenever one of them, his mother or Mo'at, seemed to be getting tired, the other was right there to jump in. It felt like they'd been at it for hours already, and he had no idea when it was going to end.

/Well? Is that understood?/ his mother demanded sharply.

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am."

/Tsu'tey?/

He could practically feel her eyes boring into his head. /Yes, mother./ Not that he was entirely sure what he was agreeing to at this point, but given that anything besides immediate agreement would only extended the lecture even more…. It just figured that they would have been caught by the two women to whom the fact that he was Olo'eyktan and Jake was Toruk Makto meant absolutely nothing. At least not when they were angry. The one thing that made this even marginally tolerable was that no one else was around to observe the proceedings. As it was he felt like a small child that had been caught with his hand in the cookpot; that would have been the final humiliation.

/Go. Both of you,/ Mo'at ordered sharply.

Neither of them wasted any time obeying _that_ command, giving the two women as wide a berth as they could manage in the narrow hallway, although Jake did mutter another 'ma'am, yes ma'am' as they slipped past.

Tsu'tey's plan, half-formed as they made their escape, had been to curl up on his bunk and pretend the entire incident hadn't happened, but Jake caught his arm as he started to make the final turn. "Come on; this way."

"Where are we going?" He was not doing anything to make _anyone_ any angrier at him at the moment.

"They know where your room is, but I don't think either one of them knows which one is mine. Unless you want to be found if they think of anything else to yell about?"

That was quite possibly the most ridiculous thing that he'd ever heard, and he turned to follow Jake without another word. His ears were still ringing.

It seemed that Jake felt the same way, because he shut the door of the too-small room behind them and then hauled himself out of his chair and onto his bunk, rolling onto his back with a groan. "Man, I ain't had my ass chewed that bad since Shar made me crack up in the middle of a safety briefing. _Damn_."

"Ass…?" There was no way that that meant what it sounded like.

Jake lifted his head and grinned at him. "Bitched out? Been yelled at until the guy doing the yelling is blue in the face?" He paused. "Although I guess that doesn't really work here, since they both started out that way."

"I understand." Tsu'tey folded himself down on the other bunk, leaning his head back against the wall. "It's been a very long time since I've received such a lecture as well."

They were both silent for several minutes—Tsu'tey, at least, was still trying to regain his bearings—but he glanced over as Jake shifted around to look at him more easily.

"Hey, I didn't realize the scary dragonlady healer was your mother," Jake said.

He hissed lightly. "Don't insult her." She deserved better than that. Even if she had just torn them both to pieces.

Jake frowned. "I wasn't. But she is scary when she doesn't like you. And she does _not_ like me; I've known that since she first came here, even if I didn't know who she was."

"As I said, I think it is just worry about the challenge. Worry for me," he admitted.

"Well, convince her I don't want the damn job so she can stop glaring at me all the time, would you? It was disturbing enough _before _this whole mess."

"I will try." When she had calmed some, and although he wasn't at all sure how much good it would do. At least not until whatever challenge they had to have was over and done with. And preferably he'd won. But although he'd wanted to talk to Mo'at about the challenge, there was no way that he would even consider going to find her now to ask her for any ideas. Not until she'd had time—a great deal of time—to lose some of her anger as well. Memory of that anger made his ears flick back again, and then he shook himself and looked back at Jake. "What is 'ma'am'? You said it to both her and Mo'at." Frequently, as the lecture had drawn out.

"It's a…I don't know what you call it. A polite way to address someone." He shrugged. "Well, a polite way to address a woman, anyway, especially if she's older. For a man it would be'sir.'"

He had called Eytukan 'sir' a few times, Tsu'tey remembered, especially at first, but he'd been so disgusted by the Dreamwalker's presence at that point that he hadn't thought a great deal about it.

"I don't always use it—I don't even often use it, really, once I know someone—but when I've got a person up in my face yelling at me…well, let's say the Marines drilled the response into me pretty damn thoroughly." He grinned. "When it's someone who has the _right_ to yell at me, anyway. I'll give as good as I get, otherwise."

That was fair enough, and it was Tsu'tey's turn to grin.

And then there was a knock at the door, and both froze.

"Um…."

"If you say 'hide,' I will hurt you." Tsu'tey paused. "Are you sure they don't know which room is yours?" Because this was a _very _small room, and if they found themselves trapped...well, it would not be pleasant. Then again, neither of them was in any shape to outrun a lecture anyway.

"Well, I'm pretty sure Mo'at and the healers don't. But the scientists here do."

That was…not good news. Not that he wouldn't prefer a lecture from Carla or Max or any of them over his mother and Mo'at any day, but he didn't really want to get yelled at a second time when his ears still ached from the first.

Another knock, and then, "Jake?"

Neytiri. Which could be good or bad; her temper was fully as bad as anyone he'd ever seen when she lost it. It didn't seem to matter much to Jake, though, as his face brightened and he pushed himself into a sitting position. "Come in."

She didn't even seem to see Tsu'tey at first, her face lighting up at the sight of Jake. Who looked even happier when she climbed onto the bunk beside him, and Tsu'tey wondered idly how long he would live if he followed Norm's suggestion and threw a bucket of ice water over them.

/I See you,/ Neytiri finally greeted, turning towards him, and he returned the greeting automatically and hid his grin.

He might not live long, but it would be fun.

"What did you two _do_?" Neytiri asked, looking back and forth between them. "Sa'nok is furious. Your mother too, Tsu'tey."

"We just went outside," Jake said.

She stared at him, and Jake shifted awkwardly.

"On Tsu'tey's ikran."

She hissed. /Moron!/

Tsu'tey agreed with that assessment. Surely Jake could have _skipped _that part.

"Uh…it was his idea!" Jake offered.

She spun on Tsu'tey with a hiss, and Tsu'tey glared as Jake grinned over her shoulder and stuck out his tongue.

Assuming he survived this, he was going to beat Jake.

/What were you _thinking_?/ she demanded.

Severely.

* * *

"Hey, Tsu'tey," Jake greeted, setting his tray on the end of the table.

Tsu'tey nodded in greeting and slid his own tray down to sit beside him. The chairs were far too small, but so was everything else in this place, and he'd solved the problem by shoving a couple out of the way and crouching by the table with his bad leg outstretched. It was better than eating in his room.

Jake glanced around the empty room—most of the others had already eaten, probably, although Tsu'tey couldn't be sure since he still didn't judge time well without being able to see the sky—and then looked over at him. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"How pissed off are you about the whole thing with Neytiri?"

Tsu'tey shrugged and then grinned slightly. "She didn't believe that it was all my fault for very long." Not that Jake had really tried very hard to convince her, and he'd come in for his fair share of yelling as well. Tsu'tey had excused himself shortly after…partially because the too-small room had begun to grate on him, partially because it was polite, and partially because if he hadn't, he might have given in to temptation and thrown something at the two of them. But Neytiri and the others were no doubt gone by now, which explained why Jake was alone.

Jake stared at his tray for a minute and then looked up at him. "That's not what I meant."


	16. Discussions

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_Managed to get this one done a little quicker than I expected, anyway. Enjoy._

_/speech/=Na'vi_

* * *

It took Tsu'tey a moment to understand what Jake was asking. And when he did, he wasn't at all sure what he was supposed to say.

"Seriously," Jake said after a minute. "I mean, here it hasn't exactly come up much, but eventually we're both going to be back at Hometree. With her. I'd kind of rather not find myself fighting you again if I can avoid it. Well, sparring aside, anyway."

Tsu'tey nodded. As much as he didn't really want to think about it, he did understand the point of the question. He just wasn't sure how to respond. "I don't know," he said after a minute.

Jake frowned.

"This is…difficult…to explain, but I will try." He pushed his tray away and tapped his fingers on the tabletop lightly. "I was young when I learned that Eytukan was considering me to follow him as the leader of the clan. I hadn't yet bonded with Denan, even." It seemed so long ago, now. "I'd known that he was paying close attention to my training before that, of course, but…." He shrugged. Up until Eytukan had spoken to him about it directly, he'd assumed that the attention was simply because he had been a friend of Eytukan's daughters and had no father of his own to take an interest. And he still wasn't entirely sure that it hadn't started out that way, but…well, hearing his full reason had come as something of a shock. He shook himself slightly, bringing himself back to the present. "When I knew of his intention, I understood that that part of my future was no longer under my control."

"Are you sure we're talking about the same thing? Neytiri?"

Tsu'tey 's tail twitched in annoyance. "How hard can I hit you without risk of injury? _Yes_, we are talking about the same thing."

"Right now, not nearly as hard as you'd like, I'm sure." Not that he looked the least bit concerned. "But I don't get how being chosen as the next leader relates to my question."

Tsu'tey scowled. "I'm not finished. And as I've told you—_repeatedly_—the mate of the Tsahik is Olo'eyktan. So when Eytukan selected me as his choice to follow him, and I accepted, it was understood that the choice of mate was no longer mine. And it was not so difficult to accept. Sylwanin and I were a good match."

"Wait, Sylwanin?"

Tsu'tey was well aware that Jake wasn't actually a moron, but it was sometimes difficult to tell from the questions that he asked. "Sylwanin was Mo'at's eldest daughter. She would have been—" _should_ have been—"the future Tsahik." He still remembered how strange it had been to think of the friend that he'd grown up with, the friend that he'd thought of as an all-but-sister, in terms of his future mate, but his friends of the same age had been going through similar transitions with regards to their other playmates, and he'd quickly become used to the idea. He shook his head slightly and then continued. "But after she was killed and the role of future Tsahik fell to Neytiri…." He frowned, trying to figure out the best way to explain it. "The match was not as good, but it was still acceptable enough."

Jake paused, eating utensil halfway to his mouth. "If 'acceptable enough' is the best you can come up with, that sounds kind of depressing."

"How do Sky People choose mates?" Tsu'tey asked, rather than responding directly. "You do choose mates, yes?" He assumed so—or at least Norm had mentioned sisters born several years after himself, which to Tsu'tey indicated that his parents were bonded in some way—but the mating habits of Sky People had never come up when he'd attended Grace's school.

"Yeah. But I don't…." Jake shrugged. "There's not really a set way to go about it. You meet somebody, you fall in love, you get married. Married…a marriage is a ceremony thing that's done when two people choose to spend their lives together." He shrugged again. "At least where I'm from, it's not arranged in advance or anything like that. It just sort of happens." He paused. "Or at least that's what everybody says, anyway. I didn't exactly go through it myself."

"Normally among the Na'vi it is similar. When two decide that they wish to spend their lives together, the bond is made before Eywa. Both usually speak to their families beforehand, and often to their clan leaders also if they are from different clans, but in the end a person's choice of mate is his own. But for the Tsahik and Olo'eyktan, it is not so simple. The good of the clan must always come first. So, when it is best for the clan, an acceptable match must sometimes be enough." It was his turn to pause. "I never _disliked_ Neytiri, nor did she dislike me." He'd simply been accustomed to seeing her as a younger sister, and while it had been relatively easy to learn to think of Sylwanin in other terms—to look forward to it, if he was honest—with Neytiri it had always felt odd. Enough so that he hadn't objected to her continual postponement of their mating, even after they were both more than of age.

"Okay, I'm sorry, but that doesn't just sound depressing, that _is_ depressing," Jake said bluntly. "I mean, I guess I understand the whole 'good of the clan' thing, but…damn. And you really never even considered anyone else?"

When Sylwanin had been alive, there had been no other female that he would have preferred, and with Neytiri…. He shrugged. "I understood what my future was to be. And I'm sure we would have grown to care for each other more in time." He considered for a minute and then jabbed Jake's arm lightly. "Until you made a mess of things."

Jake punched his arm in return. "Once again, I didn't mean to. Hell, I didn't even know that we _were_ mated for life until she said it."

Tsu'tey cocked his head. "But you just said that Sky People do mate for life." Or at least that's what he'd taken from Jake's explanation of 'married.'

"Yeah, sure, but they usually _discuss_ it first. It's not just…doing it." He shrugged. "I mean, it wouldn't have made any difference to me, but I didn't even know about the whole 'before Eywa' thing. And I damn well didn't think it was supposed to make me the next leader of anything."

She'd tricked them both, then. Although he very much doubted that she'd intended to in Jake's case; it was such a…normal…thing that it wouldn't have occurred to him to explain it either. Of course, he would never consider mating a Sky Person so it wasn't likely to come up, but he could see how it could happen. "It is not…." He paused. "When she said what she had done…." He shook his head, trying to figure out how to word this. "It is…upsetting…having one's entire future ripped away in an instant." And that was what he'd seen happening when Neytiri announce her and Jake's mating. To have already lost one mate before they had even been mated, to see another _choose_ another, taking away the position that he had worked so hard for without even a thought…he'd seen the two of them growing closer, and he hadn't liked it, but he hadn't expected things to go _that _badly.

He was so caught up in his thoughts, that he nearly missed Jake's quiet, "I get that," and he frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Feeling like your future just up and disappeared on you. I wasn't always in a wheelchair, remember?"

Tsu'tey hadn't, actually. He'd never known this version of Jake to be anything but broken, even though he rarely thought about it anymore. After a minute, he nodded slightly. Perhaps Jake could understand how he'd felt in that instant. Watching everything fall away from him. Very different circumstances, perhaps—and at least he was not actually physically _damaged _by what had happened—but 'up and disappeared' was a good description for what had seemed to be happening to any plans he'd ever had. "However it happened and whatever you intended, you were a better target—" or at least he'd assumed so until Jake had knocked him aside without even seeming to try, anyway, and regardless, no matter what she'd done, he would never even consider striking Neytiri—"but I was more upset with her than with you, I think."

"What?"

Tsu'tey shrugged. "I was angry with you also, don't misunderstand, but…." He shook his head as the thoughts he'd been trying to keep suppressed returned to the forefront of his mind. The ones that actually hurt _more_ than the thought of losing what he'd worked for so long had. He had accepted his future, even if she hadn't been his first choice of mate. What was so wrong with him that she hadn't been able to do the same? Even for the good of the clan she hadn't been able to do it...he didn't understand.

After a few minutes of silence, of trying to find the words he wanted even as he did his best to force down an all-encompassing wave of bitterness, he shook his head sharply and pushed his tray further away before getting to his feet and tucking his crutch back under his arm. "I'm done."

"Tsu'tey?"

Tsu'tey snarled at Jake as he started to push himself away from the table as well. He might finish answering Jake's question later, but he wanted to be alone right now.

"Okay, okay." Jake held up his hands. "I'll just…finish my dinner, them."

Tsu'tey dipped his head sharply and turned for the door.

"_That_ went well," he heard Jake mutter as he reached it, but he ignored the words and let the door swing shut behind him.

He started to straighten as he got through the doorframe, bumped his head on the ceiling, and snarled.

It was foolish to be upset. He knew that. What was done was done. And, really, it hadn't worked out so badly, all things considered. He didn't have to mate a woman he still considered a sister in many ways. And she still considered him a friend in return; she'd made that clear enough when she'd visited him. Unless the challenge went completely wrong, he would very likely keep his position as Olo'eyktan. And he'd found a friend—granted a stubborn, irritating, and occasionally completely moronic friend, but still a friend—that he hadn't expected in Jake. But an annoying voice still whispered that _something_ had to be wrong with him for things to have gone so. Why hadn't he been good enough?

He had no desire to return to his room and sit in silence, so he began to wind his way through the corridors. He had no idea where he was going, nor did he particularly care. He just needed to walk for a while, even if it lead to horrible cramps in his shoulder muscles from these stupid too-low ceilings.

While he passed many doors, many long stretches of walls, most of them were solid and he neither knew nor cared what was on the other side. And then he crossed into another section, where things were more glass than metal, and part of his mind recognized them as labs. Not the ones the children were kept in—fortunately for what little peace of mind he'd been able to maintain; those were on the other level where he had no desire to go—but others. He could see plants inside some of these, plants and even screens showing images of the outdoors, and he waved one of the doors open as Jake had shown him.

"Hello?" Norm's voice greeted.

Tsu'tey almost stepped backwards, back into the hall, but Norm had already seen him.

/Tsu'tey? I See you. Is something wrong?/

/I See you. No./ Nothing that he cared to talk about, anyway. He moved further inside and barely remembered not to be startled when the door shut behind him without his intervention. /What is this place?/

/Officially?/ He shrugged. "The Harold Henderson, Inc. Laboratory for the Examination of Extraterrestrial Vegetation. But most of the time everyone just calls it the Plant Lab."

/What do you do here?/ There were two rows of tiny Rumut on the long counter beside him, half of the trees encased in bubbles of clear material while the other half were open to the Sky People's air. He had no idea what point they might serve since he'd never seen Sky People eating the soup that could be made from their bark, nor were these large enough to provide any reasonable amount of bark anyway, but he reached out and stroked the leaves on the nearest open one lightly. Ignoring Norm's wince as he did so.

/Well, mostly we study plants,/ Norm said after a minute. /This was really Grace's area of expertise more than anyone else's, but…./ A shrug.

Toktor Grace had liked plants, he remembered, now that Norm had mentioned it. When he'd been in school, she'd always been especially pleased when they'd shown her where new ones were or told stories of how the plants grew and lived.

He left the rows of Rumut and moved to stand by Norm—this was another room in which he could stand upright, which he very much appreciated—and frowned down at another small tree in front of him. Unlike the rest of the plants in this room, this one stood alone. It was marginally larger than the Rumut, and…. /What is this?/ It was odd. He could feel almost a _connection_ with this miniature tree, but he could not see why. The room was fully contained; there was no way it could know Eywa. Could be a part of the world. But…. He reached out and touched one cluster of strands lightly, and then his throat caught and he linked his queue to it.

It was not what it should have been. An echo at most, and even that was giving it more credit than it probably deserved. But—

/This is the Tree of Voices./ Or it had been—or should be—but— He broke the link—_gently_, the tiny tree could stand no force—and turned on Norm with a snarl as his shock faded into anger and his free hand dropped his queue and went to the hilt of his knife. /_This does not belong here!_/ It belonged to the Na'vi, _with_ the Na'vi, and—

"Stop!" Norm yelled, holding up his hands even as he ducked back behind the nearest desk. "Just _listen_, would you?"

/_What is this doing here?_/ he repeated, not bothering to disguise his rage. If Jake had brought this here, brought it here for them to _study_….

Norm moved back again, putting yet another desk between the two of them. "We got it from the dozer! Or Zola did, I think. Just…relax. _Please_."

/What?/ Tsu'tey didn't know who Zola was—presumably one of the Sky People here that he hadn't met or simply didn't remember meeting—but he had no idea why she would have a piece of the tree. Or what one of those horrific machines had to do with anything.

/Just relax,/ Norm repeated, switching back to Na'vi, although he kept his hands up and open. /After the Tree of Voices was destroyed, the crew of the bulldozer was killed. I'm guessing you know about that, right?/

He nodded. He'd led the Omaticaya warriors who'd done that. And had been glad to do it.

/Well, a bulldozer without a crew is useless, so they used autopilot to make it backtrack its course and come back to base. When it finally got back, there were bits of plant material caught up in the treads and the undercarriage. Some of which was unfamiliar, so Zola, who was the scientist on duty when the bulldozer arrived, took samples of it. Habit as much as anything; it's part of the job./

Tsu'tey remembered the scraps of wood ground into the dirt, the roots that had been ripped to pieces, the thousands of ripped and shredded strands that would never connect to anything again. And wrongness in the soil mixed with it all; some sort of disgusting liquid that had leaked from the bulldozer. Something would eventually grow where the Tree of Voices had once stood, of that he had no doubt. One plant always grew where another died; it was a part of life. But even the most optimistic of the Omaticaya had not believed that even the smallest part of the Tree of Voices would live again. The destruction had simply been too complete, the contamination too thorough, and the season had been wrong for to find even a single fully-formed seed. /But this is a whole tree. Not material. Small, but how did so much survive?/

Norm looked at him for a minute and then let his hands fall to his sides slowly. /No offense intended, but I don't think you—or any of the Na'vi—realize how good we are at what we do here./

Tsu'tey still wasn't entirely sure _what_ most of them were doing, never mind how good they might be at it, so he didn't say anything.

/We don't need much of a plant to keep it alive. A little bit of root, stem, and leaf, and some grafting, and…./ He indicated the tree. /When they realized what some of the unfamiliar material probably was, they started reconstruction. It wasn't easy, don't get me wrong—there were several pieces to start with and this little guy is the only survivor—but considering what scientists have had to work with back on Earth, this isn't the first time a plant has had to be regrown from next to nothing./

Tsu'tey glared. /You cannot study this./ Even if they had brought it back to life, somehow, it did not belong with them.

/We never planned to. If it was just another study project…well, we'd probably have let it go for a while like we did most of the others when we were busy. And this guy wouldn't have survived that./

Some of Tsu'tey's skepticism must have shown on his face, because Norm rolled his eyes.

/I'm serious. Look, even if you don't believe in anybody's goodwill—which, yeah, I guess I can't blame you—we kind of can't. Generally to study something, especially something _you've_ grown, you need more than one sample or no one is going to consider it valid./

/Then what do you have it for?/

/Well, the plan is to give it to Mo'at and she can decide what to do with it. We can't change what Quaritch did, but…./ He shrugged. /At least it's something. Anyway, everyone who knows about plants is agreed that it's past the danger point now so we could have given it to her yesterday, but for some reason she was really annoyed yesterday afternoon./ He directed a quick glare Tsu'tey. /None of us wanted to bring up a sensitive subject when she was already upset, so we figured we'd hold off until the next time she visited./

That was not unreasonable, Tsu'tey decided after a moment.

/Could you let go of the knife, now? It's a little disturbing./

* * *

Tsu'tey raised a hand to tap lightly on the door to Jake's quarters, only to frown as the sound of voices reached him. Not Jake's voice, these sounded young. Speaking English—fluent English from what he could hear—so they weren't likely to belong to children just released from the tanks upstairs, but there were no Sky People children here that he knew of.

His hand came to rest against the door as he debated whether or not to interrupt, but apparently it hadn't been fully shut because it swung inwards smoothly at his touch. He hadn't intended to enter without alerting Jake to his presence, but his eyes were drawn to images on the far wall before he could say anything. These images had not been there in the times he'd been here before, and unlike the Sky People's pictures that he'd already seen, these images moved. Spoke.

"Jake, I've got one," the image of a young boy said with a giggle, holding up something shiny. Water ran behind them, or at least Tsu'tey assumed it was water, though he'd never seen water so oddly colored and off-putting, but there was no sign of plants anywhere in the image. Just drab rocks, rocks and Sky People buildings.

"Nice, that's a good one."

A second boy appeared beside the first, identical in every way as far as Tsu'tey could tell—although, to be fair, a lot of Sky People looked very alike to him—and Tsu'tey frowned. There was something familiar…. "Is that you?"

Jake shifted around quickly to glare at Tsu'tey from his seat on the bed, his hand slashing downwards, and the images disappeared to leave only blank wall. "Knock, would you?"

"Sorry. I did not mean to startle you."

Jake stared at him for a moment and then shook his head and waved it off. "Don't worry about it. I…sorry I snapped. You startled the hell out of me."

Tsu'tey started to shake his head and then grimaced. "Are you hurt? This place smells…wrong." Like the medical supplies the scientists used. He knew that Jake's room hadn't smelled like this yesterday.

Jake shrugged and gestured at two bottles and some white bandages on the table by his bed. One of which was stained red and yellow in spots.

Tsu'tey's eyes narrowed, and he corrected his question. "How _badly_ are you hurt? And when did it happen?" He had seemed fine yesterday.

"It's not a big deal, really. I get sores on my legs sometimes from my wheelchair. Since I can't feel them, I don't always catch them when they're first forming, which is what happened with this one, and when that happens they're a pain to clean out." He winced slightly. "Um, don't tell the docs, all right? They'll just get even fussier, and it's not like I don't know how to deal with it by myself."

Tsu'tey considered for a minute and then nodded. "Was that you? That image?"

"Yeah, that was me and Tommy. Back when we were kids." A half-smile appeared on his face and then faded as quickly as it had come.

"How can you do that? Make the images appear and disappear."

"Projector." He picked up a small, black object. Small enough that it easily fit in the palm of his hand. "Just need something kind of flat to project on and I can play whatever I've got recorded."

"Why do you have those images?"

"What? That particular set?" He shrugged. "That was just when Mom and Dad were taking pictures, I guess. I've got a couple vids like that from we were kids, a few from when we were older, two or three of the guys in my unit, that sort of thing." Another shrug, and he put the projector back on the table beside his bed. "What are you up to this morning?"

Tsu'tey was tempted to ask if he could see more of the images, but Jake didn't seem to want to talk about them so he moved on to the actual purpose of his visit. "If your leg is hurt, can you still walk? Or…?"

"Wheel?" Jake grinned. "Sure. Like I said, I can't feel anything. And I've got the damn thing dressed and wrapped now so it shouldn't cause any more problems." He paused. "Wait, where do you want to go? No offense, but I'm not sure I'm up for another flight just yet after what happened yesterday."

"Nor am I," Tsu'tey admitted. There was a strikingly low likelihood that his mother would visit again for several days, and for Mo'at it would probably be far more than that, but regardless, he doubted that he'd be calm enough to enjoy the flight. He wouldn't let it stop him from _visiting_, Denan, of course, but…. He shook his head and turned back to the reason he'd originally come looking for Jake. "I want to find fresh water."

"Huh?"

"Fresh water."

"Yeah, I heard you. I just don't get it. What's wrong with the water here?" He paused. "Well, okay, you've told me that it doesn't taste right since we have to filter some stuff out, but I thought you've been getting by."

"I have. The tree needs water."

Jake's confusion didn't fade. "What tree?"

"There is a piece of the Tree of Voices here."

"Oh, you met Geoffrey."

"No, I did not. I was talking to Norm last night in the Plant Lab and I saw it."

Jake grinned. "No, I was talking about the tree. They named it Geoffrey. Don't ask me why; I have no idea. But they do have water—unfiltered water—in the Plant Lab. A pipe coming off the main line before it hits the treatment equipment." He frowned. "Guess we should have been giving you water from there, now that I think about it; you'd probably have preferred it."

Tsu'tey shook his head. He was not talking about water for himself now. "The tree should have _fresh_ water." And it should be planted where it could be a part of the world, far away from this place, but that would have to wait until someone came who could take it away.

Jake frowned at him for a minute and then shrugged. "Okay, we can get water from outside if you want. But there's no way we can make it to the river without an AMP—or at least I certainly can't, and you probably shouldn't try either—so is the irrigation line they put in to keep water flowing through the Avatar compound fresh enough?"

"Irrigation?"

"Like tubes or canals for the water to flow through."

"Is it coming from the river? That would be acceptable."

"Yeah, it is. Although so is the stuff in the pipes here so I'm not sure why—"

Tsu'tey scowled at him. He didn't want water that had gone through their system. Or at least not any more of their system than it had to; Jake had a point about going into the forest alone and injured.

Jake held up his hands. "Okay, Avatar compound it is. It'll be a walk, but not too bad I don't think. And I've got plenty of time before I have to talk radio watch. Now where are we supposed to get a bucket from?" He shifted into his wheelchair—Tsu'tey had better sense than to offer help—and then gestured for Tsu'tey to precede him out the door.

Some time, and several side trips later, and Tsu'tey had a bucket from the mess in the hand not holding his crutch as he and Jake exited the building.

Jake remained quiet as they made their way along a marked path, and after a few minutes Tsu'tey glanced down at him. "You aren't going to repeat your question from yesterday?"

Jake shrugged. "Figured I should probably give it a couple days before I brought it up again. Although I'd still rather get it sorted out before we go to Hometree."

"I am not angry at you about what happened with Neytiri anymore." That much he'd managed to decide anyway, in the time between leaving the tiny Tree of Voices—and making sure that he would be able to find it again—and the time he'd fallen asleep. He grinned slightly. "It's not your fault you're a moron."

"Hey!" Jake objected.

His grin grew. "You didn't know about making a bond before Eywa, you can't seem to remember that the mate of the Tsahik is Olo'eyktan for more than a few minutes at a time…." Joking aside, and not that taking another's intended mate without thought was completely excusable, he believed that Jake genuinely hadn't meant to cause such a problem. The fact that Jake had no interest in Tsu'tey's position helped. _Neytiri's _behavior still cut deeply, but the fact that he hadn't—probably hadn't, anyway—had all of his future altered mitigated even that pain somewhat.

"Oh, yeah?" Jake glared up at him. "You try learning a whole damn language-plus-culture in three months. After having read a grand total of one manual, and that was on how to link with an Avatar." He snorted. "Which I should have skipped in favor of a manual on dead reckoning in this place. That would have made more sense, at least, been a whole lot more useful when I got lost, and at that point Grace would have yelled at me no matter what I'd read anyway."

Tsu'tey shook his head.

"Are you still pissed at Neytiri?" Jake asked after a minute.


	17. Target Practice

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed.  
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* * *

_Tsu'tey shrugged, not saying anything. Mostly because he didn't have an answer. Deciding that he wasn't angry at Jake hadn't been all that hard, really, but with Neytiri…she had _known_ what she was doing. What she was starting. And a part of him still wanted to know why he hadn't been good enough. He was an excellent warrior; he knew he was. And he would be a good Olo'eyktan. So what was it?

"I guess that's really none of my business," Jake said after a minute.

"No." If he'd had an answer, he wouldn't have thought twice about sharing it, but since he didn't, it was as good an excuse as any to avoid the subject. He glanced down at Jake. "Are you?" Not that it was any of _his_ business, but he was curious.

"What? Angry at Neytiri for not telling me what a mess we were getting into?" He shook his head. "Not really. I mean, it definitely falls into the category of stuff-that-should-have-been-mentioned—if I'm going to end up in the middle of a shitstorm, I'd just as soon know it's coming—but even if she had, I wouldn't have said 'no.'"

"You use the strangest phrases."

Jake grinned. "Sometimes, yeah. But you've got to admit it's accurate."

It was, in this case, and he shook his head. "Even knowing what would happen, you would still have mated her?" He couldn't imagine it. Forget strange phrases, Jake was just strange.

"Yeah." Jake shrugged, staring off into the distance with a half-smile on his face. "It's…she's worth it. I've gotten myself into a whole lot of trouble in the past for a whole lot less."

Tsu'tey looked down at him, not sure what to say to that.

After a minute Jake looked up and caught his eye. And turned an interesting shade of red. "Never mind. Yes, I'd still have done it. No one's ever accused me of being particularly smart."

That was true enough.

"Besides, I'm not really in a position to be angry at anyone else for keeping secrets."

That was even more true. "Why _didn't_ you tell us what they were going to do?" It might not have—almost certainly wouldn't have—made a difference, but... "You could at least have tried."

"Yeah, I could have. I should have. But…." He shook his head. "At first I didn't really care. I'm sorry, but I didn't. I knew what my job was. And then when I did start to care…I don't know. How do you tell people that they're going to lose their home? Because it was pretty damn obvious that you guys weren't going to move not matter what Selfridge offered and even more obvious that they weren't going to back off." Another shake. "I kept putting it off, thinking later would be better. One more thing to do, one more test to pass, and then I'd at least be in a position where you _had_ to listen to me, even if you didn't want to. Save getting shut down like Grace did when she tried to tell you that attacking was not a good plan. But then it was too late."

"We would not have listened anyway," Tsu'tey admitted after a moment.

"Maybe not, but…." Jake shook his head and then shrugged and gestured forward. "There's the downspout."

Tsu'tey tapped at a section of the tubing Jake had indicated lightly and then scowled at Jake. "There is no fresh water here."

"Put the bucket down there, under that. Yeah. And then you twist this."

Tsu'tey's stuck his hand into the stream of water that poured out as soon as the knob was turned and brought a handful to his mouth to taste. It was certainly better than the 'filtered' stuff that they normally gave him to drink, but it still seemed to have a taste that didn't belong. Or perhaps that was just his imagination; it was hard to say. He still didn't like Sky People contraptions. But it would have to serve for now.

He waited for the bucket to fill most of the way and then stuck his hand under the water again. And directed the stream of water at Jake, who still seemed lost in thought. What was done was done; he hadn't intended to turn the conversation quite so serious.

Jake obviously hadn't been paying attention, because when the water struck him he started as though shot. "You—gah!" He ran a hand through his hair, splattering droplets of water everywhere. "_Seriously_?"

Tsu'tey's grin turned to a hiss, and he whisked his tail out of danger a moment—and a reasonably hard yank for someone Jake's size—later. He'd forgotten that Jake considered tails acceptable targets.

"Jerk," Jake said with a shake of his head, shaking his head to clear the water from the front of his face mask. "I'm _soaked_."

Tsu'tey snickered. Jake wasn't actually all that wet, it was mostly just his upper body that had been hit with the water, but from the expression on his face, Tsu'tey would have thought he'd been knocked in the river.

"Now I get to hang out out here until I dry off," Jake said with a glare. A glare that wasn't particularly convincing since it kept slipping into a grin even as he tried to wring out his shirt, but….

"The air is better out here anyway," Tsu'tey said, and after a minute Jake shook his head and gave up on the glare entirely.

"And they say I'm trouble. Come on, if I'm going to be sitting around out here, I'm at least going to find a seat in the sun." He released the wet shirt and scrubbed his hands against the tops of his legs. Which were also wet, so it wasn't a particularly useful gesture. "I mean, seriously, was that necessary?"

"What are those over there?" Tsu'tey asked, ignoring Jake's question. It had been, in his opinion, and he could see bizarre-looking objects sticking out over the top of the hedges not far away so it was a fair question.

Jake looked in the direction that he'd indicated, even though he obviously couldn't see over the hedges himself. "Probably the obstacle course. Come on; that's at least worth a laugh."

Tsu'tey picked the bucket up and turned to follow Jake, keeping pace with him easily.

"And if you even think about dumping that bucket on me, I will hurt you," Jake warned.

He hadn't actually considered doing that, but now that Jake had mentioned it…. He lifted the bucket a bit higher.

"Seriously, I am armed, and even if I end up feeling guilty afterwards, you'll still have bullet holes in you."

Tsu'tey snickered again. And kept his tail out of range, just to be safe.

* * *

/I See you./

Tsu'tey lifted his head from the row of miniature plants that he'd been examining and forced himself to keep his expression calm. He had no idea how his mother could make him feel guilty when he hadn't even done anything to feel guilty for. For the most part. /I See you./

/What are you doing up here?/

/I'm looking at the plants./ He still didn't understand the point of this place, but he enjoyed spending time with the tiny Tree of Voices. It wasn't his place to reveal its existence until Mo'at was told, of course, but he could still be with it. And he also enjoyed rearranging the other plants, especially since it seemed to annoy Norm and the other scientists for reasons that he hadn't quite grasped.

/You've managed to avoid injuring yourself further?/ she asked, her expression conveying her disbelief at the possibility. Carla was with her, and she looked equally doubtful, even though she knew perfectly well that he hadn't done anything that would be frowned upon. Again, for the most part.

Anyway, Jake was the only one that knew that he'd gone flying yesterday—for the first in the four days since Mo'at and his mother had done their level best to leave them with singed ears—and since he'd gone out for a short flight as well after Tsu'tey and Denan had satisfied their desire for acrobatics, he was in no position to be telling stories.

/Well, come along,/ his mother ordered, bringing him back to the present. /It is easier if we all examine your leg at once./

Tsu'tey hid his grimace as he pushed himself to his feet and tucked his crutch under his arm. Easier for them maybe, but he certainly didn't enjoy having them poking and prodding at him all at once. Then again, he didn't enjoy having them poking and prodding him at _all_, so…. /Who else came today?/ he asked curiously.

/Neytiri flew in with me, and Tasat and Peneer came to check on the remaining children,/ his mother said, already turning for the door. /They will be staying for a few nights since Nanda and Veris should be coming out of their tanks tomorrow, and unless the healers determine otherwise, their families will be flying in to take them home the day after that. It would be tomorrow, but the flight is long and there are expected to be heavy rains./

Tsu'tey nodded slightly. Peneer had been one of his mother's apprentices who'd just become a full healer before that battle, Tsu'tey knew…presumably Tasat was the Horse Clan healer that he had met but had never been formally introduced to when Arden had been removed from the tank. /Are you staying also?/

/No, Neytiri and I are needed at Hometree./

Tsu'tey couldn't help but be a little relieved at that. For one because he didn't want his mother looking over his shoulder, and for another because he still hadn't decided what to say to Neytiri, and if she stayed he would no doubt end up speaking to her at some point. This way…well, he was fairly sure that he could avoid her. She and Jake were probably busy staring at each other again anyway.

/I'll get Max and meet you in a few minutes,/ Carla said.

* * *

"Tsu'tey, catch."

Tsu'tey snatched the bow out of the air and snarled at Jake. Not that it had been a particularly hard toss—after all, the bow was fully as tall as Jake, taller in fact since he was seated—but he didn't like things being thrown around the tiny tree. The bow felt wrong in his hands, though, and he looked down at it with a frown. "This is not mine."

"No, it's mine. Apparently your mother is guarding yours pretty closely and Neytiri couldn't find a way to snatch it without her noticing. So she brought mine. Figured it was better than nothing."

"Barely." He could see marks on the wood where Jake's knife must have slipped when he was carving it; there was _no_ decoration…. "You didn't waste the wood of Hometree on this, did you?"

"Whine, whine, whine. It _works_. And no, for the record, I didn't."

That was probably true; he'd barely become one of them and had the right to when everything had gone wrong. Tsu'tey shook his head and raised it to check the pull. It was straight, at least, he'd give Jake that much credit. And the pull was at least as heavy as his own, possibly even a little heavier. Of course, it was equally possible that it was the weakness in his arms giving it that impression. It would be good when he could truly train again. He looked back at Jake. "You have arrows as well?"

Jake lifted a quiver—as pathetically undecorated as the bow and equally amateurish in its make—off the back of his wheelchair and held it out. "Neytiri would have given it to you herself yesterday, but we couldn't find you."

"After the healers finished annoying me, I went back to your obstacle course." Which was as ridiculously pathetic as Jake had claimed, but at least it was outdoors. And not a likely place for anyone to look for him.

"Ah."

Tsu'tey slung the quiver onto his back properly and drew a handful of arrows to check them. They were also straight, if not particularly finely made, and he dropped them back into the quiver easily. "Well, an expert weapons maker you are not, but I suppose it will do."

Jake rolled his eyes. "Terribly sorry, but for some reason they didn't offer any classes on making medieval weaponry at my high school. I can send it back with her the next time she comes if you don't want it."

That was a ridiculous suggestion, and Tsu'tey scowled and shifted the bow into a proper holding position on his back beside the quiver. He'd just have to remember to hide it when his mother came. "Is there somewhere inside I can shoot?" The expected rain had begun to pour down this morning, cutting his walk short. And while he could shoot in the rain, it wasn't the best situation in which to be ranging in a new weapon. The Sky People seemed to have rooms for everything else indoors; surely there was somewhere large enough that he could use.

"You can use the firing range, I guess," Jake said after a minute. "Not like anyone else is, and I think it's tall enough that you'll be able to stand upright. And the targets are gel-set so they should be fine for arrows. Come on."

Tsu'tey touched the tiny Tree of Voices one last time and then followed Jake out into the hall. And to the elevator. He grimaced.

"Sorry, but they built it on the lower level."

"Lower? _Below_ this?" Sky People were insane.

"Yeah. It's mostly storage down there, but they set up an aisle for firing lanes. You'll see when we get there."

With a sigh, Tsu'tey folded himself into the elevator after Jake. Bad enough that they didn't seem to mind such tight spaces, but why Sky People didn't just climb, he would never understand. Surely there weren't great numbers of them damaged in the way that Jake was.

"So how's your leg?" Jake asked as the elevator began to move.

"Healing, apparently, but they will say no more. Except that I should not do anything else foolish." The expression on his mother's face as she made that proclamation told him exactly how unlikely she thought that was.

"Figures." The elevator came to a halt, and Jake gestured for him to escape first. Which Tsu'tey appreciated.

The corridor ceilings were actually higher here, high enough that he could stand upright and reach upwards and only the tips of his fingers brushed it, and he rolled his shoulders. "This is better." Well, it was still apparently underground, which he hardly found a good place to be, but at least it wasn't going to make his back ache any worse.

"The height, you mean? Yeah, they built it so the forklifts could get through easier. Mostly storage, like I said. This way."

Unlike the rest of the rooms that Tsu'tey normally spent time in, the one Jake led him into had ceilings no higher than the corridors did. Here that didn't matter so much though, and he blinked as Jake brought up the lights. And then recoiled, baring his teeth instinctively with his—Jake's—bow in his hand and an arrow half-drawn as he caught sight of the weapons lining the walls.

"Tsu'tey? Hey, hey, calm down," Jake said quickly, holding up his hands. "It's a firing range. Guns are kind of a given. Sorry, I didn't think to warn you."

How many types of weapons did the Sky People _have_? Tsu'tey couldn't help but wonder as he looked down the line. All seem to have the same basic shape, but there were many sizes and variations.

"Come on." Jake gestured to the other side of the room. "Just ignore them all right? They aren't loaded, and I'm about the only one left on the base who knows how to use them anyway. The lanes are over here."

Tsu'tey snarled at the rows of weapons one last time and then allowed Jake to pull him away. What Jake called 'lanes' were long, narrow corridors with thin walls between them, separated from the main room by half-walls. There was what Tsu'tey assumed was a target at the end of the one that Jake went to, a square object with a rough outline drawn on it, but given the height of the lanes, it was too far away for ranging in a bow. The trajectory was impossible. He looked down at Jake. "This won't work."

"Give me a minute." Jake did something that made the half-wall sink into the floor, allowing him to see down the corridor. "Ah, that would be a problem." He indicated a set of buttons. "You can use these to change the target position. This one brings it forward."

Tsu'tey touched the button Jake indicated and then stared as the thing at the end of the lane lurched and began to come forward. This was a more convenient method than having to retie ropes he supposed—although walking forward would have been equally effective, even if he wouldn't have enjoyed being in such a narrow space—and he brought it in until it was at a comfortably short starting distance. Another button moved it to an appropriate height.

Tsu'tey heard Jake wheel away as he brought the bow up, but he didn't pay much attention. It was a relief to lose himself in the comfortable draw-pull-shoot rhythm.

Jake's bow wasn't actually a bad bow. Which, given that Jake was a reasonably good hunter, probably shouldn't have come as a surprise, but it just looked so pathetic, undecorated as it was. After he'd shot through the full quiver three times—at an increasing distance each time until the target was as far away as he could manage given the ceiling height—he felt comfortable enough using it. Of course, he also owed Jake four arrows since a few of his first shots had gone high and the tips had been damaged against the ceiling, but there was wood around the Avatar building, and it wasn't as though he had other things to do.

He swung the bow back onto his back and turned to look for Jake. He would like to try against a moving target, but he didn't know if there was a setup here for that or not. At Hometree, one warrior could pull ropes to swing targets for another to shoot at, but the corridors weren't at all wide enough for these targets to swing well. Nor did the ropes seem long enough. Perhaps Jake could make it move backwards while he was taking a shot, but…well, that was hardly a challenge.

He found Jake in front of the wall of weaponry, taking each down, doing something to it quickly, and then setting it back on the shelf with an ease that made Tsu'tey feel distinctly uncomfortable. He knew Jake used Sky Person weapons. He'd seen him do it. That didn't mean that he _liked_ it. "What are you doing?" he demanded sharply.

Jake didn't even twitch as he looked back over his shoulder. "Just making sure they all really are unloaded and with the safeties on. They're supposed to be—it's supposed to be done after every use—but as quickly as we were clearing people out…." He shrugged.

"You can use all of these?"

"Yeah."

Tsu'tey shook his head.

"What, you want me to prove it?"

"_No_." That he did not want. He shook himself slightly. "Can you make the target move?"

Jake frowned, setting down the gun in his hands and swiveling his chair around. "Did it get stuck? The tracks have problems sometimes." He shook his head. "You might have to move to another lane; I don't think I can pull up far enough to clear the machinery."

"No, no, the…machinery…is fine. I want the target to move while I'm shooting."

"Oh, okay." Jake shrugged and then frowned. "I can show you what we've got, but I'm not sure it will work so well for archery. Over this way."

The lane Jake led him to was at the opposite end of the room from the one he'd been shooting down, marginally wider, and unlike the first, it had no target in it. Which didn't appear to Tsu'tey to be any improvement.

Jake again lowered the wall and then pointed to the panel of buttons. "You hit this one to start the sequence."

Tsu'tey punched the largest button of the lot and then started as things began to jump out of—and then back into—the walls, one after the other, in what appeared to be a random fashion. "What is _that_?"

"Moving targets." The things continued jumping in and out in their odd non-pattern. "You're supposed to shoot them as they come out, before they're pulled back in again." Jake shrugged. "Like I said, I don't know how well it will work for archery."

The things finally stopped and Tsu'tey shook his head. It _wouldn't_ work for archery. He was an expert hunter, but even he could not hope to repeatedly fire a bow so quickly. There was barely time to take aim at one target before it disappeared and the next one came out, never mind actually pull and shoot the bow or draw a new arrow for the next shot.

"I can slow it down a little," Jake said after a quick look at the other buttons available, "but most of the security guys here are ex-military. Slower isn't exactly what we trained for."

"You can shoot that fast?"

"Well, not with a bow, no, but with a gun, sure. You run through drills like this I don't know how many times in basic, and they don't let you on a battlefield until you get it right. The tricky ones are the ones that use different colors to mean different things…you have to hit the targets dead on, wing the ones that are 'disable' and make damn sure you don't even touch any of the ones that mean 'protect.'" He frowned. "I don't think they have that kind set up here; it's pretty much a kill-all field."

Tsu'tey considered for a minute. As much as he didn't want to see the Sky People's weapons in action again…well, it was just Jake. He looked down at him. "Prove _that_."

Jake looked back at him for a minute and then grinned. "Okay. Give me a minute."

The gun he loaded—at least that's what Tsu'tey assumed he was doing as he pushed a square box into the side of it—was a little different than any of the ones that Tsu'tey had seen him use before, but it was one of the smallest that he could have chosen from the line of them in the room. Which should have been reassuring, but somehow it wasn't.

"Here."

Tsu'tey frowned at the goggles and circular things Jake handed him.

"Range rules are that you wear eye and ear protection when shooting. Especially since this is basically a concrete bunker. Didn't figure it was such an issue with a bow, but with a gun they're not optional."

Jake fitted the goggles he'd picked up onto his face, and Tsu'tey grimaced as he forced his on as well. They weren't exactly sized for a Na'vi face, and while they did cover his eyes adequately, the sides pressed into his head in a decidedly uncomfortable way. And the round circles that matched the ones that Jake clipped over his ears didn't fit so well over pointed Na'vi ones.

Jake brought the wall back up somewhat, enough to shield his lower body, and then waved Tsu'tey sideways a few steps so he wasn't standing directly in front of the corridor. "All right, here goes. This will be loud." Jake punched the button again, brought the gun up in both hands, and started firing as soon as the targets appeared. And didn't stop as they popped in and out, one after the other.

Even with the ear protection it wasn't just loud, it was _loud_, and Tsu'tey was forced to take a few more steps away, hands going up to protect his ears. Even after the targets stopped appearing and Jake's gun finally fell silent they rang.

"Hey, are you all right?" Jake asked.

"Fine." He lowered his arms. "Did you hit them all?"

"Let's find out." Jake punched another button, and all of the targets sprang out of the walls at once. And then he grimaced. "Damn it."

"What's wrong?" All of the targets had holes in them. Most had two. It was a more than a little disturbing to Tsu'tey's eyes. Then again, he knew what destruction the rest of the Sky People soldiers had inflicted, so perhaps the capability shouldn't have come as a shock.

Jake indicated the two targets that didn't have a second hole. "Considering what I should be able to do, that's just sloppy. I missed the double-tap on those, and more than a couple of the others are off center. And that wasn't even with a reload in the middle." He shook his head again. "I'm more out of it than I thought; if I'd pulled that in front one of the guys in my squad, I'd have caught hell for it. And I'd have deserved it." He shook his head again and then ejected the square thing from the gun, rolling over to replace the gun on the rack.

Tsu'tey shook his head. If Jake ever learned to do that with a bow—to do anything _close_ to that with a bow—he was going to be a frighteningly formidable hunter. Of course, he still didn't think that it was physically possible to do that with a bow, but…. "All Sky People soldiers can do that?"

"Not quite all, although I can pretty much guarantee that all of them could hit all of the targets at least once, but I was in a spec ops unit for about four years. With some of what we had to do, I should be able to hit double-taps without even thinking about it." He tossed the square thing into a bin and looked back at Tsu'tey. "Are you sure you're all right? Those ear guards weren't exactly designed for Na'vi and you're still shaking your head."

"I am fine." The ringing had almost gone silent. But maybe it would be better if they held the challenge sooner rather than later. He pried off the goggles and earpieces, setting them aside. "Make it set up again. As slow as possible." He couldn't do what Jake had just done, but perhaps if he settled for hitting every third target or so….

* * *

/Do I even want to ask where you got that?/ Carla asked, glaring at the bow in his hands.

Tsu'tey glared at her in return and then went back to carving. He couldn't remove the accidental scratches that Jake had put on the bow while making it, but he could at least make them look slightly less pitiable. Tasat had seen him carrying it yesterday—they'd finally formally introduced themselves at dinner—and it had been a little embarrassing. Tasat hadn't said anything, of course, but even a new warrior would have at least simple decorations on his weapons. That Jake didn't even seem to consider it odd that his didn't...well, it was as firm a reminder as anything else that he wasn't really Na'vi. If Jake didn't like the pattern hiding the scratches, Tsu'tey could always smooth it over before he returned it. It wasn't carved deeply. And if nothing else, putting it on passed the time.

/I can't decide which one of you is worse,/ Carla said with a shake of her head. /Put that down for a minute and let me get a scan of your leg. Then I'll leave you alone./

Tsu'tey did as she asked, and his glare darkened as she hummed at whatever the results were. /_What?_/

/Well, from the look of things we'll be able to switch to a normal cast the next time your mother comes, and then you can go home./


	18. Past and Future

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Turns out I was a little bit off about when everything would go crazy…it'll calm down and I'll get back to regular updates eventually._

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* * *

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"If you don't stop calling me a moron and explain what you're talking about, I'm going to stab you."

Tsu'tey glanced down at Jake—and the knife that he was gesturing with—and then snorted. "I have teeth longer than that blade." It wasn't even much of an exaggeration. The edge was tolerably sharp, even if it was metal like most of the other Sky People things, but it was also small enough to fold down and disappear into _Jake's_ hands if he chose to make it do so.

Jake looked down at his knife for a minute and then returned his glare to Tsu'tey. "That's not the point."

Tsu'tey sighed and turned the stick of wood in Jake's hands around. Again. He hadn't entirely believed it when Jake had asked him to show him how he'd made the designs on the bow, but now he was beginning to think that Jake really _hadn't_ carved anything before Neytiri had helped him make said bow. And that he probably hadn't been overstating things when he'd said that she'd made him start over a dozen times, either. "The grain goes in _that_ direction. You have done this before; you should be able to recognize that much by now." After all, Neytiri might have helped Jake make his weapons, but Tsu'tey knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't have done it for him.

Jake shrugged. "I never had much luck figuring out which direction would work before I tried it, so I just tried it." He grinned at Tsu'tey's groan and then shook his head. "Besides, I still don't get why it matters so much what something looks like as long as it works. I mean, I like the designs you did, don't get me wrong, but…."

"Because…." It was Tsu'tey's turn to shake his head. "Because more than just _function_ matters. Even children decorate their belongings, and masters of crafts are among the most respected in the clans. Did you not notice that in your time at Hometree?"

Jake shrugged again, drawing his knife across the piece of scrap wood in the direction that Tsu'tey had indicated. "I guess. I mean, I saw people doing weaving and carving and pottery and everything, and it was either Neytiri or Peyral who said different jewelry and decorations mean different stuff, but I was kind of busy with other things at the time."

Tsu'tey sighed and resisted the urge to take the piece of wood and smack Jake over the head with it as his tiny knife skidded sideways and disrupted the—already barely acceptable—pattern that Jake had managed to create. "Pay attention to what you are doing." He paused and then shook his head. "Sky People must use decorations sometimes." As little as their buildings here seemed to reflect it. Or their weapons, for that matter. Or…. He frowned. He couldn't remember whether he'd seen any of the scientists wearing jewelry or not. Toktor Grace had, but she had spent enough time with the People that she may simply have picked up the habit from them. He looked up at the sky for a moment and then back down at Jake. "The cloth you wear is decorated. What does that mean? Who makes that?"

Jake hands stilled as he glanced down at the image on his chest, and then he shrugged. "The symbol is a dragon; the shirt is a t-shirt. But neither of them means anything. And it's all mass-produced anyway. Machines made it."

"Machines made it." He shook his head and sighed again. Somehow he wasn't even surprised by that fact. "But you prefer the design over a plain…t-shirt, yes?"

Another shrug. "Not really. Some people might, but it's just what I grabbed out of my clean pile this morning. Which reminds me; I need to do laundry later."

"You are being difficult."

Jake looked up, apparently genuinely surprised. "I'm not trying to be. Seriously. Clothes just don't mean that much. Scientists wear lab coats in lab and businesspeople wear suits to work and stuff like that, but that's just what you do. Like I'm wearing this stupid mask because I don't want to die out here. I guess some people on Earth might have antique jewelry or religious stuff that _does_ have real meaning, but it's usually personal."

"What about when you fight?" Na'vi warriors dressed and painted themselves for battle, but in battle things tended to blur together and he couldn't remember now if the Sky People he'd fought had done the same or not.

"Well, I wear tags so if I end up dead someone will know who I was," Jake said after a minute. He fished a flat piece of metal on a chain that, if it was supposed to be jewelry, was more pathetic than anything Tsu'tey had seen before, out from under his shirt, holding it up for a moment before tucking it back in. "And cammies have rank insignia on them, I guess, but they mostly aren't obvious. You don't want to go painting targets on your officers." He made a face. "There _are_ ribbons and medals and stuff on dress blues, but I never wore those unless I was forced to."

Tsu'tey shook his head and decided not to ask. "Well, you managed to dress appropriately when you were with the clan so you must have noticed _something_."

"Mostly I just wore whatever Neytiri told me to. When in Rome and all that, and besides, I was more interested in what I was doing than what I looked like while I was doing it."

Which helped explain the ridiculous way he'd worn his hair for most of the time he'd been with the Omaticaya, anyway. Tsu'tey grinned. "I don't know what Rome is, but it is lucky for you that I did not know that. I would have had a great deal of fun with it." He still might, actually.

"Yeah, because I'd have trusted anything you said about half as far as I could throw you."

"That makes no sense." After a moment Tsu'tey looked back down at him and returned to his previous topic of conversation. "What about the marks on your arms? The…." He frowned. /Tattoos?/ The Omaticaya did not use ritual tattoos nearly as much as some of the other clans did, and he didn't remember hearing a Sky Person word for them before, but the marks didn't look like anything the scientists wore. "Do _they_ mean something?" Surely they must; they seemed to be permanent.

"What? The tats?" Jake glanced down and then grinned. "All they mean is that I shouldn't let my friends talk me into things when I'm drunk."

"What?"

"Well, this one?" Jake set his knife and the piece of wood down in his lap and then pushed one sleeve up and indicated the smaller tattoo, the one in a ring around his arm. Now that Tsu'tey looked closely, he could see stylized symbols that looked something like the ones on the corridor maps and in the books that Grace had once shown them. "Says 'Born Loser.'"

Tsu'tey stared at him for a moment and then shook his head. "_Why?_" That was not something that he could see anyone wanting marked on his body. Especially permanently.

"Short version? Because after we got orders, a couple of us decided that it would be a good idea to get totally wasted—drunk—and then go out and get tattoos and…well, there it is."

"Somebody ordered you to put that on yourself?" It didn't sound like that was what Jake was saying, but, again, he couldn't see why anyone would choose those words.

"What? No." Jake grinned and shook his head. "No. It's…after you finish basic, you get orders about where to report. Where you'll be fighting. The group I went through with had about a week between when we finished and when we had to catch our flights. I'd originally planned to spend it with Tommy, but then a professor of his pulled him into some kind of research project and dragged him off to Timbuktu or wherever for a couple weeks. Which was okay, I mean, most undergrads never get that kind of opportunity, and it wasn't like I didn't get to talk to him or anything. But since I didn't have any place to go, and I really didn't want to spend all my time just wandering around a mostly-deserted base, me and a couple other guys with nowhere else to be got a couple motel rooms in the nearest city and just hung out. That last night we got to talking…."

He trailed off, staring past Tsu'tey for a moment, and then he shook himself. "All four of us there that last night—me, Stevens, Petrov, and Ellison—were going to Venezuela. And the casualty rate there was a lot higher than was ever officially reported. Nobody really said anything about it, but we all knew. We weren't afraid to go or anything, but…I don't know." He shook his head again, and a half-grin returned. "We were trying to kill off all the alcohol—that's like kyricks for humans—"

"Keyrikx," Tsu'tey corrected.

"Keyriks," Jake repeated.

Tsu'tey scowled.

"Do you want me to finish explaining or not?"

After a moment, Tsu'tey gestured for him to continue.

"_So_ we're trying to kill off the alcohol that had been building up in the rooms all week at the same time as this talk was going on, and someone thought tattoos would be cool, and then somehow 'born loser' came into it. Well, I'm not sure which order those two happened in, actually. I was drunk enough to think it was hilarious when it was mentioned and to still think it was hilarious when we finally stumbled into a tattoo parlor, so here I sit." He indicated the mark on his arm again.

"Your friends got other things?" He'd seen and done few foolish things himself after overindulging on keyrikx at celebrations, but he hoped that he'd have had better sense than to ever do something so _permanent_. Or at least that one of the other clan members would stop him if he tried.

"Stevens got a tiger—that's kind of like an Earth version of a Thantor—and Petrov and Ellison both got skulls and crossbones."

Tsu'tey wasn't sure why anyone would want a Palulukan permanently drawn on him any more than 'born loser', or, for that matter, what the attraction of a skull would be, but he decided to blame the entire matter of image choice on Sky Person insanity and gestured at Jake's other arm. "What about that one?" It was larger than the first and, as far as he could tell, didn't have any messages in it.

Jake's grin grew. "I got that at Anders' birthday party. It was a couple years in…two and change, I think. We were coming off a rough mission and the whole squad got a couple days of R&R—rest and recuperation—to unwind. Not that we really had anywhere to _go_, aside from the town nearby, but at least it was a few days to just relax." He shrugged. "Anyway, the first night after we'd all caught up on our sleep, Anders took a look at a calendar, realized that he'd missed his birthday, and insisted that we all hit a bar to celebrate."

"By 'bar' you do not mean…." Tsu'tey indicated one of the metal bars on the climbing obstacle in front of them.

"Hm? Oh, no, sorry, a bar is a place that serves alcohol."

"Ah."

"And just to let you know how classy the one we ended up going to was, it was a bar, by-the-hour motel, and tattoo shop all in one."

None of that meant much of anything to Tsu'tey, but Jake continued speaking before he could ask.

"Almost all of us went, but most of the others just had a beer or two and then headed back to base. There were only a couple of us left by the end. Anders, Torres, me, Shar, Parker…oh, and Marcosi. He didn't drink so I think the others figured he would keep the rest of us from doing anything particularly stupid, but then he ended up falling asleep in his basket of fries so so much for that." Jake shrugged. "We were all pretty wasted when somebody, probably Anders again, brought up tattoos. I remember Torres saying that there was no way in hell he was drunk enough to get a tattoo in a bar, and then Shar decided she'd order us all another round, and the next thing I know I'm waking up in my bunk with a killer headache and a wrap on my arm." He grinned and shook his head. "Tattoo number two for me."

Tsu'tey remembered Jake mentioning someone named Shar before, and he cocked his head. "These friends of yours, they are still on your planet? Still warriors?" Which might not be the best way to phrase it since, broken or not, he would not say that Jake was _not_ a warrior, but….

Jake shook his head. "No. Or not all of them, anyway. Ellison and Petrov might be; we lost track of each other after basic so I don't know what happened to them. And Torres took over as squad leader after I got shot and as of when I left Earth was still fine, although who knows what's happened since."

Jake didn't look inclined to continue, and Tsu'tey frowned. "The others are dead? All of them?"

"Well, Marcosi's alive, but he got a medical discharge about a month after I did. He was a demolitions—explosives—expert, ran out of time diffusing an un-detonated mortar and didn't get out of the way fast enough. Lost an eye, an arm, and most of his hearing in the blast. The others…." He shook his head. "Stevens caught a bullet on his first mission. First combat death I ever saw. Lost Anders when his transport was shot down before we made drop a couple weeks after his party. And Shar and Parker were killed in the same ambush that paralyzed me."

Tsu'tey looked down at him, but Jake's stare remained focused off in the distance for a few long minutes. And then he shook his head and picked up the knife and piece of wood again.

"All right, what am I doing wrong now?"

* * *

Tsu'tey stopped at the Plant Lab briefly. He didn't really expect Jake to be there, but there was a chance that someone who knew where he was might be. And, anyway, he hadn't visited the little Tree of Voices today. Unfortunately the lab was as deserted as the cafeteria had been, and he dropped into a crouch beside the Tree of Voices with a frown. He'd gotten so distracted helping Jake with his carving—or harassing him about his carving, in several instances—yesterday that he'd actually forgotten to share his news about being able to leave soon. And now at this rate it seemed that he was going to be gone before he found _anyone_ to tell. He could force himself into the elevator and try the upper level since, if nothing else, Tasat and Peneer and a Sky Person healer or two were probably with the children, but….

With a light touch to the base of the tree, he pushed himself back to his feet and turned for the door. He was being foolish. Someone would be at the radio. He would ask them.

As expected, the radio was manned; unexpectedly Max, Carla, and a small crowd of other Sky People, some of whom he didn't even recognize, were in the room as well.

Max was the only one to glance back as Tsu'tey entered, and he slapped another scientist on the shoulder—the one called Eric, Tsu'tey thought—saying something quietly before moving back towards Tsu'tey.

"What is happening?" Tsu'tey asked when Max reached him.

"There's a shuttle coming down to take up the last load of base personnel later today."

Tsu'tey frowned. "But I thought you and the other scientists were staying." Something he still didn't particularly _like_, but he could tolerate it.

"Well, some of us are, but…." He made a vague gesture towards the others in the room, standing in small groups speaking quietly or just staring out the window. "Some of them are still trying to decide. And there are still several dozen people here who _need_ to go."

Tsu'tey's frown deepened and he shook his head. Jake and the scientists were the only people he'd seen—although it was a large place so he had no difficultly believing that he hadn't seen everyone—but 'need to go' made it seem like the ones Max was speaking of were unfriendly.

Max seemed to understand his confusion. "You've never met any of them; they've been staying in one of the barracks. By everyone's preference. None of them are the kind of people who would try and make trouble or anything—we tried to send off all of _those_ in the first couple loads, when there were still enough Na'vi around the base to stop them if they did get violent—but they don't want to stay here any more than anyone wants them here."

After a minute, Tsu'tey nodded slightly. Jake _had_ mentioned that there were still enemy personnel on the base, back before Tsu'tey had realized who he was, but nothing had been said about it since so he hadn't given the matter much thought. Well, excepting the aborted attack on Jake in the AMP, anyway. He gestured at the other scientists in the room. "That is what everyone is here for? To watch for the shuttle?"

Max shrugged. "Pretty much. Norm was on radio watch when the message came in an hour or two ago, and everyone's just sort of been gathering here as they heard. Final decisions to make, like I said, messages to send, that kind of thing." He shook his head. "Most people have already done a lot of thinking, and even after they get up to the ship, it'll take some time to get everyone into cryo so there's _technically_ time for one more shuttle trip if anyone changes his mind, but there's a big difference between thinking and actually…." Another shake of his head. "I'm sorry; did you want to talk to someone at Hometree? I think Eykir is monitoring the comms on that side—"

Tsu'tey shook his head, stopping him before he could take more than a step towards the radio. "I was just looking for Jake. I thought whoever was on radio watch might know where to find him."

"Oh." Max turned and made a quick scan of the room. "Well, he was here earlier, but I'm pretty sure that he left right after Norm did. You might try his room. Or the gym." He frowned. "He was kind of upset so the gym is probably the best place to start."

"Where is the gym?" He was fairly sure that he'd heard the word before, but he didn't remember being anywhere with that name.

Max indicated the door. "Come on, I'll show you. It's faster than trying to describe it."

"You do not have a decision to make?" Tsu'tey asked curiously as they walked. He hadn't spoken to Max about much of anything except his injuries, but while most of the other scientists had looked uneasy, Max seemed quite calm.

"Me? No." He smiled slightly. "I was in the first group of scientists to come to Pandora. Carla, Grace, myself, and few others. All but the three of us did go back after their first rotation, but personally I don't even know what I'd _do_ on Earth. And there's still plenty of work to be done here. Studies to finish—studies to start, in a couple cases—a new Avatar to grow for Norm…."

"You can do that?"

"Yeah, sure. It'll take a few years, but I was on the team all the way through the creation of the first Avatars so I know the process. And it's not like we don't have the equipment." Max stopped in front of a door that Tsu'tey had passed several times but not paid much attention to, waving it open and gesturing inside. "Here's the gym. Punching bags are off that way."

There was a rhythmic thumping sound coming from the direction that Max had indicated and Tsu'tey nodded to Max and then stepped inside and straightened fully. The ceiling here was actually quite high, and with a flick of his ears as the door shut behind him, he headed for the source of the noise. "Jake?"

"Now's not a good time," Jake said as he approached, fists continuing to impact what looked like a stuffed tube, one after the other.

Tsu'tey ignored his statement, dropping into a crouch beside him. "Are you all right?"

Thump. Thump-thump-thump. Thump. "I'm fine."

The thumping continued for another minute as Tsu'tey considered the situation, and then he caught the back of Jake's chair and gave a quick tug, pulling it back away from the punching bag. Which got him an absolutely murderous glare, but Jake's arms were too short to land any punches against _him_ from this angle, so he wasn't too worried. "I don't believe you."

"I'm fine. Really. Now let go."

"What was the phrase…'make me'?"

Jake's glare darkened even further. "Whenever I can get back into my Avatar, I am so going to enjoy kicking your tail."

Tsu'tey gave that all of the attention it deserved—which amounted to a derisive sniff—and then cocked his head. "What are you upset about?"

"I am _fine_."

"You're a very poor liar."

"You're a pain in the ass."

Tsu'tey didn't bother to respond to that, and after a minute Jake sighed.

"It's just a crappy situation, okay? I was talking to Norm after the shuttle called in and…." He shook his head. "There's not even a way to guarantee that his family will even _get_ the messages that he recorded for them. I mean, Zola is going back—he's sort of the lead guy for setting up the whole treaty thing—and he'll do what he can, but who knows what the government is going to do. Or should I say what the RDA guys pulling strings within the government are going to do, because even if public opinion is on our side, they're still the ones with all the money, and…." He shook his head again. "Norm's a mess, and I can't do a damn thing to help."

Tsu'tey would be the first to admit that he had never been good with words of comfort, especially in a situation that really did seem to be that bad, so he settled for releasing the back of Jake's chair and flicking his shoulder lightly. Which got his arm punched in return, but it wasn't any harder than his blow had been so he wasn't worried that Jake had taken offense.

"Was there something you needed?" Jake asked after a minute.

It suddenly seemed a poor time for good news, but he'd never been a particularly skilled liar either. "Carla said I can go home soon."

"No joke?"

"No. My leg is not healed, but she said that they will be able to switch to a normal cast soon, and when that is done there will be no reason that I cannot leave here."

"Lucky."

"Why are your…pods…still not fixed yet?" He poked the object that Jake had been hitting lightly, frowning as it barely moved despite the fact that it was only hanging from the ceiling by a single chain. It was more solid than he had first thought.

"Well, like I said before, the colonel smashed the ones here up pretty good. There are enough spare parts to fix them, but it's a pretty big job. We'd probably have better luck fixing one of the pods in the mobile base, but it's there, and we're here, so…." He looked at the bag for a minute and then wheeled himself around. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Tsu'tey followed him out, grimacing as he once again had to stoop in the corridor. "I could take you to that place." It would be a long flight to get to the Sky Person building near the Tree of Souls, but he could do it.

"Yeah, but your ikran can't carry it back here, so unless you're okay with taking one of the scientists out there first I'm afraid it won't do much good. I mean, if it's only a blown power cell I can swap that out on my own no problem, but if it's anything more complicated…." He grinned slightly. "Let's just say I'm damn good at blowing things up, but putting them back together again afterward was never really my specialty." He shook his head, pulling a mask down off the wall and settling it on his face before cycling the doors to let them outside.

"Take one of the scientists…." Tsu'tey felt his lip curl as he considered Jake's suggestion. It was one thing to take Jake on a flight. He was ikran makto in his own right, and Tsu'tey wasn't particularly worried about any stupid behavior during the flight. The scientists, on the other hand, even Norm, he wasn't so sure of.

"Yeah, that's about what I figured. We'll get the ones here sorted out eventually; don't worry about it."

They walked—or wheeled, in Jake's case—in silence for a few minutes, and then Jake looked back up at him.

"When are they doing it? Swapping casts, I mean."

"The next time my mother visits."

"Great." His tone belied his words. "Just do me a favor and let me know when she's on her way so I can find somewhere to hide, would you?"

"She is not _that_ frightening." At least when she wasn't verbally eviscerating anyone.

"Says you." Jake shook his head. "Think you'll be able to help me get any of the mines done before you go?"

"If we start tomorrow, I think we can fix many of them." He glanced down at Jake, who still seemed to have most of his attention elsewhere. "Would you go back? If it was a choice?"


	19. An Early Start

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Still busy, but I'm trying to get things written and posted as I can._

_/speech/ = Na'vi_

_

* * *

_"Me?" Jake looked up at him and shook his head, smiling slightly. "No."

"Why not?"

"Well, for one Neytiri's here."

Not wanting to leave one's mate was understandable enough, and it was probably good that that was Jake's first thought, but it wasn't exactly the answer that Tsu'tey had been looking for. He shook his head. "And if that was not true?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized that that probably hadn't been the best way to phrase it, considering how many had been lost in the battle, but he wasn't sure what would be better.

"You mean if that wasn't part of the equation?" Jake shrugged, apparently unconcerned about his choice of words. "Unless a whole lot of other stuff changed too, the answer would still be no. I mean, I like it here. There…." He shook his head again. "Tommy's dead, Shar and Parker and most of the rest of my friends are dead, it's not like I'll ever be an active Marine again…there's not a whole lot left for me. Just a dead-end job vet services set me up with—one that I probably wouldn't have kept much longer considering how well I got along with my supervisor—and a lot of nights to drink away. Not what I ever wanted." He brought his wheelchair to a halt under the horizontal-bar obstacle, reaching up with his hands twisted backwards to grab the lowest of the six bars. "Then again, I guess technically I never wanted to be ten feet tall, blue, and seven years away from the planet I was born on, so what do I know?"

It was Tsu'tey's turn to shake his head as Jake hauled himself upwards, managing to lift himself up and over the bar and into a sitting position on it. He'd thought the obstacle course was pathetic before, but that was just ridiculous. "Scientists should not design things for warriors."

"No joke." Jake stretched up for the next bar and then let his arm fall back to his side when he couldn't quite reach. And then clamped both hands around the bar tightly as his upper body wavered."

"Jake?" Tsu'tey reached down to brace him in place, but Jake steadied himself and waved him off.

"I'm fine. Just got dizzy for a second. Guess I shouldn't have skipped breakfast." He looked up at the bars above him again and then gave Tsu'tey a quick grin. "You know, if you wanted a challenge, the docs would probably be happy to tie your arms to your side, or blindfold you, or do some other horrible thing in the name of healing."

Tsu'tey considered knocking him off the bar, but with his luck Jake would get broken again somehow, and he would get blamed. He settled for a hiss and a mental note to drop Jake in the river whenever they went mine-hunting. "I'm sure they would. They are annoyingly…helpful." He sank down to sit on the ground, his back against one of the posts and his injured leg outstretched. "What did you want?"

"What?"

"For your life, what did you want?" He was genuinely curious. He'd never wanted anything but a life with the clan, to be a warrior, to be a good leader. Well, that, and maybe to do something worth remembering in a history song. But he had the feeling that what Jake considered the world was a lot larger than anything he'd ever thought about.

Jake looked at him for a long moment and then shrugged and lowered himself back down into his wheelchair. "Something worth fighting for. Teach me to be careful what I wish for, I guess."

That was a…different…answer, and Tsu'tey hooked a hand around one wheel of Jake's chair to prevent him from rolling away. He didn't make any attempt to do so, but he didn't seem inclined to elaborate any further, either. "Will Norm be all right?" Tsu'tey finally asked after a few minutes of silence. "And the others?"

"Hm?" Jake shook himself slightly. "Yeah, I think so. He'll be better when the ship is finally gone. Everyone will; they'll find other things to concentrate on. And it's not like we'll _never_ have any contact with Earth, and Zola will do his best to get the whole treaty set up, and everything with people's families will probably be fine. But until it's all hashed out…." He tilted his head back, staring up at the sky. "You know, I really wish I'd been able to punch Selfridge. Just once. It wouldn't have done one damn bit of good, but I'd feel a whole lot better."

Tsu'tey grinned. "You are a warrior. It is a normal response."

"At least someone thinks so. Carla looked at me like I needed to get my head examined."

He cocked his head. There were plenty of things wrong with Jake's head—from a Na'vi perspective, anyway, starting with the lack of a queue and those undersized, immobile ears—but it seemed fairly normal in comparison to the other Sky People's.

"She thought I was crazy," Jake elaborated, apparently reading the confusion on his face, and then shook his head sharply. "So, mines tomorrow? At least those we can do something _useful_ about."

Tsu'tey understood that desire well enough, and he nodded. "Yes. You are certain about all of the locations?" Granted that Jake hadn't had any trouble finding one before, but there was a great deal of difference between 'one' and 'all.'

"Even if the dispersal pattern wasn't in the computers, Na'vi don't have scanners, so Quaritch didn't bother trying to disguise their signatures. I know where they are."

Tsu'tey started to open his mouth when an unnatural hum reached his ears, and he frowned and shifted into a crouch, reaching for his bow.

"What?" Jake asked, one hand reaching for the gun on his hip.

"I hear something. Up there."

"Oh." Jake shook his head and moved his hand away from the weapon. "It's probably just the shuttle. I think I'm going back inside."

* * *

Tsu'tey stared up at the sky for a several minutes. It was very early. In the village days started earlier than they usually did here, but even there most would still be in their hammocks.

With a shake of his head, he turned away from the building. For a moment he considered walking down to the place the shuttle had been, but he'd seen the new burn scars in the land when he'd watched people loading the shuttle yesterday evening—at Jake's request, just in case one of people in the group that they didn't anticipate causing any trouble decided to do something, as he described it, 'unexpectedly stupid'—and he didn't think that they'd help to relax him in the least. Granted that the land was _already_ horribly damaged here, but….

He shook his head and turned down the marked path instead, making his way past the obstacle course to the hut where the Dreamwalker bodies were kept. There was nothing there to hold his interest either, though; there wasn't even enough light filtering in from the outside to look at the various pictures above the bunks. And the still, nearly-lifeless bodies with blinking monitors beside them were even more disturbing in the darkness than they had been in the light.

For lack of anything else to do, he made his way around the side of the Sky People's building to check the hanger that Denan had claimed for herself. She was asleep, though, which was hardly unusual at this hour, and he sighed and turned to make his way back inside. Maybe Jake would be awake. If that was the case, he would go ahead and wake Denan and they could get started on the mines before any of the scientists were awake to object. She wouldn't be entirely happy about it—actually she wouldn't be happy at _all_—but she would forgive him.

And if Jake was not awake…well, it was possible that Norm would be wandering the halls again. Or one of the other scientists, considering how unsettled everyone had been after the shuttle had come and gone. Very few scientists had actually left, and most of those who had were members of the group planning to work on the treaty, but the looks on the faces of many of those who had chosen to remain…. He shook his head. In this instance they were braver than he was, because that was not a choice that he could have made.

When he reached Jake's room, he could hear movement from inside, and he grinned slightly and tapped on the door. He'd thought that it probably _was _too early, and it was good to be proven wrong. When the first attempt got no response he tapped a second time, this time a little harder. "Jake? Can I come in?" A murmur reached him immediately after that sounded like assent, and he pushed the door open. "Hello?" He grimaced as the smell of medicine once again reached his nose and then frowned at the figure on the bed.

Jake was obviously still asleep, and Tsu'tey's frown deepened as he twitched and muttered something else. He hadn't known that Sky People dreamed. Of course, he hadn't really spent any time around sleeping Sky People, and the Dreamwalkers' souls went back to their Sky Person bodies when they slept, so he hadn't known that they _didn't_ either, but….

Jake's upper body thrashed suddenly, his mutter becoming an angry snarl as he tried to free his arms from the tangled blankets, and Tsu'tey moved to shake his shoulder without thinking about it. It might be a dream, but it obviously wasn't a good one. And then he lurched backwards automatically as one arm jerked free and a fist shot towards his face. "Jake!"

Eyes snapped open at his sharp bark, and Jake stopped fighting abruptly. "Wh—Tsu'tey?" His free hand clawed at the blankets for a moment, and then he managed to pull himself onto his side so they were facing each other. "What the—? What's going on?"

Tsu'tey resettled his crutch as Jake freed his other arm, glad that while he had lost his balance slightly when he'd jerked backwards, he'd been spared the embarrassment of actually falling to the floor. "You were having a dream. A bad one."

"Oh." Jake blinked hard and then rubbed his eyes before dragging himself around until he was in a sitting position, his back against the wall. "Yeah. Thanks. Um…what time is it? What are you doing here? No way in hell I was _that_ loud."

"It is early." He gestured back at the still partially-open door. "And I came to see if you were awake. I thought that you said it was okay to come in, but you were caught in the dream."

"Ah." Another swipe at his eyes, and then he frowned at the clock beside his bed. "Man, you weren't kidding about early. Why are _you_ up now?"

"I couldn't sleep anymore." He shook is head. "It feels as though I've been doing too much resting as it is."

That got a quick grin. "I guess I know that drill."

"I will go if you want to sleep more." He wouldn't have come in if he'd known that Jake was still asleep. Although it was perhaps just as well that he had, as Jake shook his head immediately.

"No, no, it's fine. I'm not…I won't sleep any more tonight." He gestured at the other cot. "Have a seat, if you want. Uh, I didn't hit you or anything, did I? I don't always wake up so well when it comes to nightmares."

He shook his head and took the offered seat, leaning his crutch against the wall. "You have short arms. Do Sky People dream often?" For the Na'vi, dreams could contain memories, messages from Eywa, visions of the future, any number of things, but he didn't know if it was the same for Sky People or not. Well, he assumed that they didn't get messages from Eywa, considering the number of horrible things they'd done to the planet, but he wasn't sure about the rest of it.

"It depends on the person, I think. I don't usually—or at least I don't remember them if I do—but…." He shook his head again. "It happens, sometimes. Why were you looking for me at oh-dark-thirty, anyway?"

"I thought that if you were awake, we could start on the mines."

"You really are bored, aren't you? How long have you been awake?" He shrugged, not waiting for a reply. "Yeah, I guess we might as well. Give me ten minutes to change and grab a protein bar, would you?"

"It is no hurry. We will probably be yelled at if we leave now."

"Oh, we'll probably be yelled at anyway," Jake said with a grin. "But as long as your mother and Mo'at aren't planning on putting in another appearance, I'll live."

Tsu'tey tilted his head in acknowledgment of the point. "I will meet you in the hanger, then." Ten minutes would give him time to awaken Denan and have her somewhat soothed before Jake arrived.

"Sounds good."

Jake joined him the promised amount of time later, a bag slung over the back of his wheelchair, and Denan hissed fiercely at him as he approached.

/_Displeasure/irritation,/ _came through the bond, and Tsu'tey patted her neck lightly.

"Oh, what's your problem now?" Jake asked, glaring at her.

Tsu'tey grinned down at him, ignoring the tangle of less-than-pleased emotions that Denan was still sending. "I told her it's your fault we're here so early."

Jake rolled his eyes. "Great, thanks, because she just didn't hate my guts bad enough before."

Denan hissed again and Jake stuck his tongue out at her and then grabbed his bag with one hand and caught Tsu'tey's proffered hand with the other, letting Tsu'tey swing him up on to Denan's back.

"It's okay; she didn't believe me," Tsu'tey assured him. It was next to impossible to lie to one's ikran, after all, especially when one wasn't really trying. He waited until Jake had fixed his legs and then sent Denan skyward with a sharp call. At least it was a light night; those were the kind she preferred when she had to be out. He looked down at Jake. "Which way?"

"Head for where the other one was, and we can work outwards from there. Considering the burn pattern, it shouldn't be hard to find."

"What were you dreaming about?" Tsu'tey asked curiously as they flew.

"Hm?" Jake shook his head. "Oh. Nothing important."

Tsu'tey glanced down at him. "You were upset."

"It's not…I told you, I've seen some bad stuff. When I'm awake it's one thing, but asleep…." He shook his head again and then tilted his head up. "Do Na'vi have nightmares?"

"Sometimes," Tsu'tey admitted after a moment. It was his turn not to want to examine the subject further as the image of three bloodied, broken bodies came to mind.

Jake didn't seem inclined to press, though, instead pulling one of the flat screens out of his bag and glancing at it before indicating over Denan's left shoulder. "Down that way. You're going to have to put me down a little ways away from the mine; I don't want to chance the pressure from her wingbeats setting the damn thing off. I don't _think_ they're that sensitive, especially this far away from the river where corrosion hasn't set in as bad, but I don't really want to find out otherwise."

"Agreed."

* * *

Tsu'tey reached up to scratch Denan's neck. They'd been working for some time now, enough that he was beginning to wish that he'd eaten something before they'd left, and she was finding the short flights—and the amount of time they were spending on the ground with Jake sitting in the grass in front of them—rather insulting. Especially since even though the sun had finally come up and the tree cover was thinner here, the branches still created too much shade for her to sun herself properly. Not that she'd have been any happier if she _had_ been able to sun herself properly and they'd kept waking her from naps to fly them to the next location, but since she couldn't, she was insisting upon making her irritation known.

/Be calm,/ he said quietly. /We are nearly done./ They weren't, of course, but they had done enough for one morning. After all, she had been being very tolerant—she had yet to eat today as well—and it would be best if they got back to the Sky People compound before anyone noticed them missing anyway. They'd be lectured eventually, of that he had no doubt, but he had no objection to postponing it for awhile.

/_Annoyance/displeasure_./ She was clearly not appeased in the least by his reassurances.

"If she wants to eat me, would you just tell her to do it and get it over with?" Jake said over his shoulder, still working on the latest mine.

Tsu'tey snorted, turning to watch him push the cover of the mine out of the way and go to work with the cutters. "You should not suggest things like that."

"And yet that's never seemed to stop me."

Tsu'tey would have laughed, but at a flicker of movement along the edge of his vision caught his attention and he tensed. "Be still."

Jake obediently froze in place. "Do I even want to ask?"

"I believe the word is 'crap.'"


	20. Unexpected Visitor

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. _

_I got a question about Tsu'tey's language. As I think I mentioned earlier, I'm trying to have him use simpler words when speaking English and more complex words when speaking Na'vi. I'm sure I've messed that up many times (hence cheating and saying Tsu'tey's English was already good for a Na'vi in one of the early chapters), and while I don't know if the scientists wouldn't necessarily say things like 'make me' or 'crap' directly to Tsu'tey, although the fact that they're scientists doesn't mean they wouldn't use them at all, Jake absolutely would. Since the two of them spend a lot of time together, Tsu'tey has picked up on a few phrases. _

_

* * *

_Tsu'tey watched the figure in the sky circling lower for a moment longer and then shook his head and sighed. It had been nothing but wishful thinking to believe that they could go unnoticed, no matter how still they held themselves. Denan was too large, her color too striking against the undergrowth, especially since there were no branches above large enough to hide her, and neither he nor Jake precisely blended in either. "Never mind, it's already too late."

"Too late for what?" Jake twisted slightly, enough to follow the line of Tsu'tey's gaze, and then groaned. "Ah, man. I'm just going to go ahead and blow myself up now, if you don't mind."

Tsu'tey snorted. "That would leave me to face her alone. I mind." Although he understood the temptation well enough, even if he saw no sign of his mother or anyone else with Mo'at. "How much longer before that is disarmed?" She clearly intended to land, and he would prefer that she was not at any risk when she did so.

"It's done. I finished right before you said anything." He looked back with a half-grin. "But I could fix that and blow us _both_ up pretty easily. We've still got a few seconds before she gets here."

Tsu'tey sighed and signaled Denan forward, offering a hand to lift Jake onto her shoulders. It wasn't much, but it had to be better than leaving him to face Mo'at from a seat on the ground. Jake seemed to recognize that as well, stuffing his tools back into his bag and then catching Tsu'tey's arm with a mutter of thanks. And Denan, clever as she was, must have picked up on his unhappiness because for once she didn't object to Jake's presence.

Mo'at, for her part, landed and dismounted with all the dignity of her age and station, and Tsu'tey did his best not to squirm in place. After all, he was a grown warrior. He was Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya clan. He didn't need anyone's permission to be anywhere.

"_You_ I know were a great deal of trouble when you were young," she said with a scowl at him, apparently completely unaware of that fact. She shifted her glare to Jake. "Did you give your clan such trouble as well?"

Jake shrugged awkwardly. "Humans don't exactly have clans like you think of them, but yeah, I guess so. Or at least my parents used to say that we were turning them grey before their time, anyway."

Judging from Mo'at's expression, she didn't understand that phrase any more than Tsu'tey did, but the important part seemed to be that Jake agreed with her assessment because although her frown deepened, it was directed at the two of them equally. "I would have _hoped_ that the two of you would both have outgrown such foolishness before adulthood, but it seems that I was wrong."

"It's either disarm the mines or flash-burn everything," Jake objected. "Between the fact that they're corroding and that Tsu'tey will be leaving for Hometree soon…." He shook his head. "We're being careful."

She didn't look at all appeased. "And the healers approve of your actions? Atanva did not seem to the last time you were out."

Tsu'tey bit back a wince at the mention of his mother and kept his mouth shut.

"Well, I guess no one's said that they _dis_approve yet," Jake said after a minute.

Tsu'tey hissed sharply at him. /Your pardon, Tsahik, but we did not expect to see you here today./ As far as distractions went, it was a poor one, but he knew perfectly well how evasions like that had worked for him as a child.

/Clearly./ There was the smallest flicker of amusement in her voice, no doubt directed at his blatant change-of-subject, but least she seemed willing to go along with it. Although Tsu'tey wasn't at all sure that that was a good thing, as her expression turned serious again almost immediately. /However, I understand that Zola left for the ship yesterday, and I wished to speak to him one last time before it leaves for the Sky People's planet. I was told that that was best done from here./ She paused. /Also, I was speaking to Patak, and he mentioned speaking to you of the leadership challenge to come. I was…remiss…in not considering this myself, and it is something that we should discuss./

"You've had other things on your mind," Jake pointed out.

Tsu'tey was a little surprised at Jake's quick defense—he'd expected to have to translate at least some of what she'd said—but…well, Jake had said that he understood more than he could speak. He nodded in agreement with Jake's words. /And it is not as though either of us will be in a fit state for a challenge for some time to come. There is no hurry./

/The challenge will not be held immediately, I agree, but the matter is of great importance to the clan, and as you _will_ be returning to us shortly, there is need to speak to you about it./

He frowned slightly. Judging by her expression, she clearly she felt that the matter was of higher significance than he had thought. Or at least than he had thought since Jake had told him flatly that he didn't want the position, anyway. After a moment, he nodded and then swung up onto Denan's back. /I believe we will be more comfortable discussing this back at the Sky People's place./ A statement that he never thought that he'd make, but there was food there and places to sit. And less excuse for her to make pointed glances at the land around them and then frown at them in disapproval. /And I believe someone at the radio will be able to help you talk to the ship as well, correct?/ He glanced down at Jake.

"Yeah, sure, no problem."

She dipped her head and remounted as well. /We will go, then./

He gestured courteously for her to take to the air first, waiting for her to achieve an appropriate height before bracing Jake in place and sending Denan skyward with a sharp cry.

"Hey." A quick squeeze to his forearm as they leveled out made him look down. "You want me to disappear while the two of you talk?" Jake asked.

He considered for a minute and then shook his head. "No. Or…perhaps at the end." There was one thing that he would prefer to discuss with her privately. "But when we speak of the challenge, you are involved as well." Granted that she hadn't specifically said that he should be there, but it seemed reasonable that he should be.

Jake nodded, tracking Mo'at's path with his eyes. "I don't suppose she's at least done yelling at us about slipping out, is she?"

"Unlikely." Although her focus was clearly on the challenge and whatever she wished to discuss with Zola—he should probably ask about that too, now that he thought about it—so it was just barely possible that she would let their excursion pass. After all, they were both grown adults. "I think it would be best to not say things like 'the healers did not forbid it,' however, if she should say anything else."

"Yeah, I guess that kind of thing never went over well when I was a kid, either." He shrugged. "Was worth a shot."

"Not with Mo'at. How do you think _I_ know that it doesn't work?"

That got a quick grin from Jake, and then Denan dove downwards towards the hanger. While Mo'at landed and dismounted on the ground outside, Denan alighted inside on the platform railing, and Tsu'tey swung Jake down into his chair and accepted his crutch in return before Jake made the platform sink to the floor.

/We will discuss the challenge first,/ Mo'at said as they entered the building. /And then I will speak to Zola./

"I think Max wanted to talk to you the next time you visited too," Jake said, pulling his mask off and bracing himself upward on the shelf by the door with one hand so he could hang it on the peg with the other. "I mean, if you don't mind. It should only take a few minutes."

/That is fine./

Jake dropped back down into his chair, and Tsu'tey moved to lead them through the halls. His room was probably the most comfortable place to hold this discussion.

"You understand what the challenge is?" Mo'at asked Jake as they entered it, taking a seat on the empty bunk opposite Tsu'tey's. "That it decides who will lead the Omaticaya in the times to come?" She had switched to English, so she obviously wanted to be very sure that he understood.

"Yeah, Tsu'tey explained it," Jake said with a nod, swiveling his chair around so he could see them both. "But I already told him, I don't really want the job. H—eck, I don't want the job at all; I wouldn't even know where to start. He's _does_ want the job, and he'll be good at it, so I'm still not real clear on why it has to happen."

Tsu'tey appreciated the confidence, although he was tempted to repeat—_again_, and with strong language—that the mate of the Tsahik was Olo'eyktan. But he managed to hold his tongue as Mo'at began to speak.

"The line of leadership must be clear. For the Olo'eyktan and Tsahik to be other than a mated pair…it is not our tradition. It is not _impossible_—there are songs of this—but it is still most unusual." She frowned and then shook her head. "Among the Omaticaya, perhaps, who know you both, it would not be such an issue, but with the other clans there may be difficulties if the proper...procedures…are not followed."

Jake didn't look any more pleased at that than he had at Tsu'tey's explanation, but he did nod slightly.

"The clans must not be split over such a thing so the challenge must happen, and the results must be very certain." She paused. "And a normal challenge may not be enough, I fear. Things would be…easier…if you were not Toruk Makto, but as you are…." She shook her head again.

Tsu'tey tensed, feeling his ears fold back. He had no idea what she meant by that, but to his mind it didn't sound very good.

"What do you mean?" Jake asked, sounding more than a little wary himself.

"The challenge itself will remain as it has always been. That is the way of things. But if more than just the Omaticaya could see it—could see the _results_—it would be best for all. And if you are both willing, I believe I know of a way in which this can be done. It will not cause extra travel for the other clans' Olo'eyktans, either, which is also of some importance now."

"As long as the results are that he wins, I guess I'm good with whatever," Jake said after a moment.

Tsu'tey bit back a sigh and refrained from calling him a moron only by force of will. Mostly because no one with any sense would agree to such a thing without hearing what was required of him first, but also because the results would depend upon their performance, as he had already explained. In detail. "What are you suggesting, Tsahik?" Offhand, he could think of nothing that would do as she described; they couldn't possibly hold the challenge once at each clan's home or anything of that nature.

"There is to be a clan gathering next year, as there is in every fourth. You were not…awake…when it was spoken of, but all of the other leaders there agreed that we should not think of changing this. With so many lost, it is important that the rest show strength. Healing. If you were both willing to wait to hold the challenge until the gathering, the results would be seen by all rather than spread by messenger, and the decision of the judges could not be questioned." She paused, her focus on Jake for a long minute. "You are certain that you do not wish to be Olo'eyktan?"

"Uh, _yeah_."

"The challenge must happen," she repeated slowly. "But it is…." She frowned and then shook her head. "We will see. But you are both willing to agree to wait? Tsu'tey, you will stay Olo'eyktan until then, of course, but it will be understood as…temporary…until the challenge is finished."

She looked at him first, and Tsu'tey considered the proposal. Postponing the challenge until the clan gathering meant leaving permanent leadership in question longer than he might like, but he could see her point. And aside from giving him plenty of time to heal, holding the challenge in front of all of the clans who came to the gathering would certainly prevent any 'difficulties,' as she had phrased it, from drawing out. "I agree."

"Jakesully?"

Jake nodded. "Sure, I guess I'm in too."

"It is decided, then. I will tell the others when I return to the clan." She paused. "Patak, I think, will be especially pleased. He and the rest of Horse Clan expect to be leaving within the four-day and he did not want to leave his clan again." She glanced over at Jake. "You said Max wished to speak to me? About what?"

"It's…I'd rather let him tell you, if you don't mind. It's lunchtime so I should be able to find him pretty easily if you wouldn't mind waiting for here for just a few minutes? Or Tsu'tey knows how to get to the radio from here, if you'd rather talk to Zola first. I can tell Max to meet you there."

"I will wait here."

"I'll be right back, then."

Mo'at nodded slightly in farewell as he rolled out the door, and then she turned her attention back to Tsu'tey. /You are ready to return?/

/Very much so./

/Good. The clan needs a leader in this time./

/Do you believe that this will succeed?/ Tsu'tey asked. /The challenge?/ From the way she had spoken, he believed that—provided he performed to the best of his ability and that his abilities were sufficient, of course—she would do her best to influence the other judges in his favor.

/I believe that it will legitimize the results as much as will be necessary./ A pause. /As to 'succeeding,' that depends entirely on your point of view./

His ears flicked in acknowledgment of the mild rebuke. While he believed that she would support him, it was hardly appropriate to have mentioned it directly.

She glanced back at the door. /Do you believe that he was speaking truly when he said that he did not wish to be Olo'eyktan?/

/Jake?/ He shrugged and then nodded. /If he was not, he would not have said it./ Jake might refrain from saying things that he should, sometimes—the healers would probably insist that it was quite a bit more than 'sometimes,' actually—but he wouldn't say things that he didn't mean. He grinned slightly. /He didn't even know that mating Neytiri would make him Olo'eyktan, and I don't think he was very happy to find out./

She looked slightly startled at that and then frowned and shook her head, refraining from commenting.

/The clan is doing well?/ he asked after a minute. It was as good a lead-in to what he wished to know as any, and even if Max was just down in the cafeteria, it would take a few minutes for him to arrive. Especially if they also needed to fetch the tiny Tree of Voices, as he suspected.

/As I've said before, everyone is in the process of settling in,/ she said. /It remains difficult, and it sometimes takes great effort not to compare things now to how things were, but everyone is managing. Though they will be pleased when you return./

His pride appreciated that acknowledgment, although he confined himself to a small smile. Especially since his question was quite serious. /All of the Sky People who intend to leave left yesterday with Zola. The rest intend to remain./

She nodded. /Yes. It is not the best situation, perhaps, but it is as good as it can be, I think./

He nodded. He had paid attention when Mo'at and Patak and Neytiri had come with messages from other leaders, but he'd still been unhappy with the whole thing when the details had been being worked out, and as he hardly claimed any great experience with treaty-writing anyway, he'd made no great contributions. Under the circumstances, it had been best to trust to the others. /How have the others in the clan reacted to the news that some Sky People are remaining?/ The question had occurred to him while watching the last of the 'unfriendly' Sky People leave, brought to mind by Jake's concern that one of them might do something unpleasant that no one expected. While he couldn't say that he was entirely happy with the scientists remaining on their world, he would not see them harmed either, and he was all too well aware that 'accidents' could happen. It was not something that he would bring up in front of Jake if it could be avoided, especially if he was worrying over nothing, but if there was the possibility of it happening, he needed to know. Preferably _before_ anything was started.

/The majority are less displeased than I had expected,/ she said after a moment. /Many—most, especially among those who studied with her—were fond of Toktor Grace, just as many respect Norm for fighting alongside them, and the fact that Toruk Makto will speak for the rest…./ Her ears twitched. /I do not say that they all are entirely _pleased_, of course, but they are…accepting. For the time being./

That was more than he had expected, and he nodded in return. /That is good./

Her ears twitched again, this time in amusement. /I suspect that speaking to many of the scientists on the radio has helped. They are not precisely threatening./

Well, that was true enough, and he grinned slightly. /Should I accompany you to speak to Zola?/

/If you would like. I simply wish to confirm the treaty wording since the last time we spoke it was over the radio. Of course, this will be over the radio as well, but it will have to do./

Tsu'tey nodded, but before he could say anything else, the doors opened and Jake came back in. Max and Norm were immediately behind him with the miniature Tree of Voices on a flat rolling thing between them.

Mo'at turned to face them, and then her eyes narrowed abruptly as she focused on the tree. /What—?/

Tsu'tey could feel it clearly—and tried not to make his grin obvious, even if she wasn't looking at him—but then, he had already linked with the thing many times. All she was probably feeling was the same tentative, confusing connection that he had felt the first time he'd seen the thing. But then again, she _was_ Tsahik, so….

/This belongs to you,/ Norm said, indicating the tree. /Or with you, anyway. We grew it from remnants, but it's stable enough for transport now if you want to take it back with you./

She stepped closer, linking her queue to it almost absently, and then her eyes widened. /I—_how_? I saw the destruction with my own eyes! There was _nothing_ left!/

/Not quite nothing,/ Max said with a half-grin. /We're scientists, and we had all the pieces. We had to try./

She broke the link gently and then shook her head, stroking a finger down a cluster of strands. /I had not thought…./ She shook her head sharply. /I will not take this now. A place must be prepared to receive it, and the distance it must travel is not short. I would not risk carrying it myself. I will send someone with a proper carry harness./ She looked at it for a moment longer and then swiveled to face him. /Tsu'tey, it will go into your care until I can send someone appropriate./

He nodded. /Of course./ Which earned him a sharp look from her—no doubt due to the fact that she'd just realized that he must have known about it before and had not informed her—but she obviously had other things on her mind now than reprimanding him.

/I will go to the radio now,/ she said with one last gentle touch to the tree. /You two will tell me more of how you did this as we walk./

It wasn't precisely an order that she had the right to give, but neither Max nor Norm seemed particularly concerned as they accompanied her out of the room.

"You're in trouble," Jake said in a singsong voice as he rolled over to Tsu'tey. "Keeping secrets, tsk, tsk, tsk."

"Be quiet. You are annoying." He wondered for a moment if he should go to the radio as well, but if he was necessary—if there was even the possibility that he would be necessary—she would have told him that he should come when he asked here earlier. And his stomach was starting to remind him that he had yet to eat today.

"Yeah, sometimes." Jake agreed with a grin, and then swiveled his chair as Tsu'tey stood and tucked his crutch under his arm. "Besides, she'll probably figure out soon enough that I knew too. So what's this clan gathering thing? I mean, I assume it's a gathering of clans, given, you know, the name, but do you all just hang out for like a week, or….?"

Tsu'tey stared at him for a minute and then gestured for him to precede him out the door. "You did not think to ask that _before_ agreeing to her suggestion?"

Jake shrugged, matching his pace down the corridor. "No, not really. I mean, unless she said it was going to come down to that fight to the death Norm mentioned, or you had some kind of serious issue with it, I would have agreed with pretty much anything."

Tsu'tey stared for a minute longer and then shook his head, grinning. "You would have, too."

"Tsu'tey, do you seriously want a list of all of the situations I've gotten myself into without thinking them through the whole way or coming up with a plan first? Because it's a damn long list. Being _here_ is on that list. Throwing myself into some challenge without knowing that much about it…." He shrugged. "I'll manage." He followed Tsu'tey as he turned into the cafeteria. "So, clan gathering?"


	21. Scientists

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Yes, Tsu'tey will be headed home shortly...there are a few more loose ends to tie up at the base, and then he's back to the village. Where there are more.  
_

_

* * *

_"_Shit_."

Tsu'tey paused, his arm half-extended with the treat he'd intended to offer to Denan in his palm, and turned back towards Jake. They gone out again after Mo'at had left—this time with the knowledge of the scientists, at least, if not their blessings or even any real approval—but they'd started losing light two mines ago and were going to have to go back to the Sky People's compound soon. He'd just set Jake down a moment ago, and he didn't think that anything could have come in to attack them _this_ quickly.

"Stay back!" Jake snapped, before he could take more than a single step.

He hadn't heard that tone from Jake before, at least not since the fall of Hometree when he'd been yelling at them all to run, and Tsu'tey stopped moving immediately. "What's wrong?"

"This thing's shot." Jake started dragging himself backwards as he spoke. "Stay back where you are. And keep her still, if you can."

"Can you get—"

"I can get there. Just stay _back_."

Tsu'tey had become accustomed enough to seeing Jake moving around in his wheelchair, occasionally pulling himself into or out of it as necessary, that he didn't think much about it anymore. And up until this point he'd been setting Jake down next to the mine after Denan landed and picking him up again after it was disarmed so Jake's ability or lack thereof to move his legs hadn't really been an issue. But while he didn't doubt that Jake would do a great deal worse than yank his tail if he was stupid enough to show anything like pity—and rightfully so—it was obviously not easy for him to move like that, especially over any distance, and Tsu'tey didn't like seeing it.

Of course, the wary eye that Jake was keeping on the mine didn't make him feel any better either, but before he could do more than give it an uncertain glance of his own, Denan snapped the treat up out of his hand and brought him back to the present. He waited until she'd swallowed it before making Tsaheylu, asking her to remain very calm, and then moved forward. She was more than intelligent enough to recognize the urgency and do as he asked without him staying beside her.

Jake looked up and scowled at him, said scowl deepening as Tsu'tey moved closer and held out his—Jake's—bow. He wasn't actually stupid, though, and a moment later he caught the end and let Tsu'tey pull him the rest of the way over.

"What do you mean, 'shot'?" Tsu'tey asked as he swung Jake up onto Denan's shoulders and then mounted himself. It had to be another one of Jake's nonsense phrases; he couldn't see the Sky People actually shooting at one of their own weapons. Of course, they were occasionally insane, so it was entirely possible that he was wrong, but….

"There's a puddle of water right beside the mine, and half of the trigger mechanism is rusted right through. Try to point her wings that way for takeoff, would you?"

Tsu'tey shook his head but asked her to turn. She thought the idea was as ridiculous as he did, but it wasn't as though taking off in that direction was any more work than any other, so she did as he asked.

Jake shook his head, craning his neck to look back past Tsu'tey as Denan took to the air. "No way in hell I can even touch that thing without setting it off. A shake would be enough to do it." Another shake of his head. "We're lucky it didn't blow us both up when you set me down."

"So what do we do?"

"Get high enough to miss the blast and trigger it. No other choice. Can you hit it with an arrow?"

Tsu'tey looked down at the mine and then frowned at him. "That is a joke, yes?"

"No." He grinned slightly, twisting to look at Tsu'tey. "Guess it was a stupid question, though."

That was an understatement, and Tsu'tey asked Denan to level off before drawing his bow. "Does it matter where I hit it?"

"No. From this height, I'm thinking we're still going to get a decent heat blast, though."

"Heat is not an issue." Not after what he'd felt at Hometree, anyway. He released Jake and nocked an arrow. "Hold tightly."

"Yeah, that's not going to be an issue either."

Tsu'tey fired—the day that it required any effort from him to hit a simple stationary target from this short distance was the day that he would _willingly_ relinquish the title of Olo'eyktan—and no sooner had the arrow struck home than a plume of fire shot upwards.

Denan shrieked and banked sharply upwards, away from the heat, which could certainly be felt even if it wasn't particularly severe, and Jake and Tsu'tey both swore and shifted their weight quickly to stay with her. Which resulted in the back of Jake's head bouncing off Tsu'tey's chest and extra curses from both of them, but at least they managed to remain on her back as two more explosions went off in tandem.

"Your day-see-chain again?" Tsu'tey asked, turning back to look at the damage.

"Daisy-chain, and yeah." Jake looked over Denan's shoulder at the new scorch marks on the land. "Damn."

He didn't sound any happier than Tsu'tey felt, and Tsu'tey shook his head. "It's getting dark. We should go back." And not risk another incident like that tonight.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. And heaven help us if anyone picked up that explosion on sensor."

The last had been muttered under his breath, but Tsu'tey nodded anyway. "I don't know what it is you swear by, but I believe I understand the feeling." No good could come from anyone thinking they had been in more danger.

* * *

"—m telling you, it had to have happened at or before the second bifurcation," Eric was insisting as Tsu'tey and Jake entered the cafeteria. Despite their mutual worries, no one had accosted them when they'd landed in the hanger, and they'd decided that it was best to carry on as though nothing unusual had happened.

"There just no other way that the neurological connections would be viable across species." Eric continued, just as emphatically, and then paused. "Well, unless you want to argue concurrent evolution of the biologics, in which case the statistics—"

Marie shook her head, cutting him off. "No, I'm not arguing concurrent evolution, we've been over that, but _again_ you're basing your hypothesis on the rate of evolution that what we've come to accept for Earth-based life forms. From Earth-based studies. Given the fact that the Pandoran biosphere is totally alien, there's no way that you can definitively say—"

"I'm not assuming anything!" Eric stabbed sharply with his eating utensil at a screen on the table beside him. "You can read the spreadsheets yourself; the data doesn't lie."

Talia snorted, reaching out to wipe splatters of whatever off the screen. "Ninety percent of the data in those spreadsheets is based upon the embryophyte-P growth rates we've observed in the lab, which you know as well as I do don't always—hell, don't even _often_—cor—oh, hey, Jake," she said, breaking off with a wave as she finally noticed them. /Tsu'tey, I See you./

/I See you,/ he returned politely, including the other two with a slight nod.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to interrupt," Jake said, grabbing a tray and opening one of the cooling units. "We'll just grab some dinner and be out of here in a minute."

"No, no, take a seat," Talia said. "Actually, Tsu'tey, we've been trying to sort out the answer to this question for…well, quite awhile now. Maybe you can help us out. Or if nothing else, you might be able to give us a new angle to work from since we've about hit the wall."

Tsu'tey frowned at Jake as he shook his head quickly, the motion kept out of view of the scientists, before selecting a few pieces of meat and jerky that the healers had left for him and going to crouch by the small group. "I will try." There was no reason _not_ to answer their question—unless, of course, it was completely unreasonable—since he would be here to eat anyway. "What do you wish to know?"

Marie swallowed a bite of whatever the mess on the plate in front of her was called and then nodded at the screen sitting between she and Eric. "Grace did some early work in plotting the evolution of all of the various mobile biologics several years ago, but unlike on our planet, on Pandora that includes both flora and fauna. And her primary interest was flora." She shook her head. "Which is fascinating, don't misunderstand, but when she began to do in-depth studies that's where she focused. With regards to the fauna, we've barely begun to scratch the surface." Another shake of her head. "We've got some basic observations, a few years of recorded field data—dietary habits, ranges and habitats, mating behaviors, that sort of thing—but Talia's thesis was on nonverbal intelligence, and the neural connections that all Pandoran species seem to share is a facet that doesn't have any direct correlation with anything anyone has studied before."

"We know that the typical configuration of the neural net extension is a dual whip," Talia said, taking over the conversation, "but the Na'vi have a single queue which is obviously quite an anomaly. Marie and I believe that the divergence had to have occurred fairly early in speciation, but Eric thinks it would have to have happened considerably later, perhaps even after full loss of the vestigial limbs—the transition from six to four—in order to let you successfully link with other species like the pa'li and the ikran. Is there any record among the Na'vi as to which it might be?"

All three of them looked at him expectantly, and he stared back for a minute. "_What?_" With Jake, he might not always understand _why_ he used the phrases he did, but at least the words themselves were generally recognizable. He had no idea what this woman was even asking him.

Jake, sitting in front of one of the heating devices waiting for his food to finish, did a less than credible job of turning a bark of laughter into a cough, and Tsu'tey twisted to glare at him.

"You could be helpful."

"I could, but I didn't understand most of that either." He grinned. "I _think_ what she—they—want to know is, why do Na'vi have a single queue while everything else seems to have two?" He paused, frowning slightly. "Or possibly when did it happen. That Na'vi ended up with one, I mean."

Talia glanced at the others and then back at him, her face creasing in a frown as well. "Right. That's what I just asked."

Tsu'tey was quite sure that the two questions had had absolutely no words in common, but after a minute, he decided that it wasn't worth worrying about and shrugged. If all they wanted was the answer to a nonsense question, he could certainly given them that. "We have what Eywa gave to us, as others have what Eywa gave to them. It has been the way of things since the earliest songs." And probably well before that. Where did these Sky People _think_ their queues had come from?

"Yes," Eric said with a nod, "we understand that, but from what we've been able to determine, in the embryonic stage—"

The device in front of Jake beeped, and he pulled out a now-steaming food pack and put it on the tray in his lap. "Sorry guys, but I've got to go. Catch you later."

"Later," the scientists echoed and then turned back to Tsu'tey. Who suddenly wished that he knew where Jake was going so he could use it an excuse to leave as well.

"So, anyway," Marie started again, "like Eric was saying, in the earliest stages of development it appears that…."

* * *

"Come in," Jake called when Tsu'tey tapped lightly on his door, twisting to look back over his shoulder. "Oh, hey, Tsu'tey. You have fun talking to the scientists last night?"

Tsu'tey hissed and then decided that Jake had a thick enough skull that he wasn't risking much, moving close enough to smack him in the back of the head.

"Ow!" Jake's grin disappeared and he rubbed his head. "Come on, was that really necessary?"

"It took me nearly an hour as you measure time to escape them." He shook his head. "And I still don't understand what they were talking about. Why does it matter so much that we have a single queue?" He would understand if they were just jealous that they didn't have _any_—he'd be jealous if the situation was reversed—but the Sky People's lack of queues hadn't come up in the conversation at all. Well, as far as he'd been able to tell, anyway.

Jake snickered. "For the record, when you find a bunch of scientists sitting around waving spreadsheets and using words like 'bifurcation' and 'neurological connection,' the smartest thing you can do is get the hell away from them as fast as humanly possible. Na'vi'ly possible. Whatever. Just run."

Tsu'tey shook his head. "That would have been good to know before."

"Hey, I tried to warn you; you're the one who went and said you'd help them. Although the look on your face when she finished her question was kind of hilarious."

Tsu'tey hissed again—as far as warnings went, shaking one's head was _not_ a good one—and then folded himself into a sitting position on the second bed. "We will go out after mines again when the rain stops?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. At some point I'll need to take an AMP out and collect all the pieces we've been leaving behind, but I won't have to get out of it to pick stuff up so that can probably wait until you're gone. But I am taking a better scanner from now on so we can check for moisture around the mines _before_ landing, especially after a storm like this one." He shook his head. "I should have thought to do that before, but the one I was using originally was tied into the AMP's control panel, and it didn't even occur to me to grab a separate one aside from the locator."

Tsu'tey knew exactly nothing about scanners so he was willing to accept whatever Jake wanted to do and just nodded. "You didn't have trouble understanding the scientists last night," he said after a moment. Jake had _said_ that he didn't understand them, but he'd managed to rephrase their question easily enough. Tsu'tey could have used him later in the conversation.

"What? Oh, translating what Talia was going on about? Call it practice." Jake shrugged. "Tommy used to talk like that sometimes when he got really into something. Or was trying to explain one of his experiments. He usually did try to stay away from the geekspeak when it was just the two of us, but it didn't always work so well. And after awhile I just kind of got used to it and learned to pick out the words that mattered." He grinned suddenly. "I think the least understandable conversation I ever had with him was when he found out he was one of the ones chosen to come here and was trying to explain to me some stuff about the Na'vi language. I'm actually pretty good with chemistry and tolerable at biology—or at least I can recognize which biology words are important, even if I don't know exactly what they mean—but languages are just _not_ my thing." He paused. "And I was pretty out of it at that point too, which didn't help."

"What do you mean? And what is kem-is-try?" Biology was what they'd been discussing last night—or at least it sounded a lot like one of the words that had been used a few times—but that one was different.

"The science of blowing stuff up." He paused. "Well, there's more to it than that, but that was the part I really liked."

Tsu'tey opened his mouth and then shut it again. He had no trouble believing that. "What was he saying about our language?"

Jake frowned for a minute and then shrugged, twisting and activating something on the screen in front of him. His face popped up a moment later, and then the screen split to show…two of Jake's face?

/

"_Jake, guess what?" the first version, the one that was sitting upright and alert, his hair just a little longer than Jake's was now, said, grinning widely._

"_Hm?" This second version looked more than half-asleep, lying down on a bunk—one with a ceiling frighteningly close to his head—and his hair was cropped to nearly nothing. "Tommy?" He freed one hand to swipe at his eyes. "Do you know what time it is?" He yawned and didn't bother to hide it. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one."_

_Not-Jake—Tommy—bounced a little in his chair. "Come on, twin, wake up. This is important. They just posted the results."_

"_Mm." Jake—real-Jake—put his head back down on the pillow._

_Tommy leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest._

If Tsu'tey had seen that look on Jake's face, he would have known to expect trouble, and he wasn't surprised when Tommy began to speak again.

"_Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, Jac—"_

_Jake lifted his head again. "Tommy, I swear to God, if you are not dead or dying, you will be the next time I get my hands on you."_

"_Jake…."_

"_Twin, I've been in the middle of a running skirmish for the past three days. _Days_. During which time I've gotten maybe four hours of sleep total, and none of it lasted more than half an hour at a stretch. More than half of my squad is injured in one way or another and damn near a third of the rest of the base personnel are out on maneuvers, which means I'm going to get woken up in about…." He looked to the side. "In about an hour and a half to cover someone's watch. If I'm going to be able to do anything but hallucinate purple cats, I _need_ a nap."_

"_Purple…?"_

_Jake put his head down again. "Never mind. Shar's fault. Don't even get me started."_

_Tommy sighed, his arms still crossed over his chest, and stared at the screen in silence for several minutes. _

"_All right, all right, five minutes," Jake finally said with a groan, lifting his head slightly. "Just do me a favor and talk fast."_

_Tommy's grin returned in full force. "I got picked! First, if you can believe it! I'm going to Pandora!"_

"_That's nice. Congratulations." Another yawn. "Don't forget to vid me when you get there. And bring back something interesting."_

"_No, Jake, _Pandora_. You know, the planet? Well, moon, if you want to get specific—"_

"_No. Not at all." Jake put his face back down in his pillow._

"—_but I'm going to get an avatar and everything," Tommy continued. "Man, I was worried sick about the language part of the exam. I mean, I know I can do the science, and I'm good with languages but it's just so _different_." He shook his head. "I tried to get a hold of you last week to talk to you about it, but you were…out." He paused for a minute and then shook his head again and continued. "It's completely human-pronounceable, which is kind of a miracle given the fact that it evolved on a planet light years away from Earth, but the structure is totally alien."_

"_You don't say," Jake mumbled into his pillow._

Tsu'tey snickered, but Tommy didn't even seem to notice.

"_There's nothing gender-specific, but there's actually full encoded clusivity for small groups, and the way the sentences are structured there's no definite ordering with regards to word types in the way that there is in English or most other Earth-based language." He paused. "Jake are you even listening?"_

"_Yeah, sure. No definite ordering." He didn't even lift his head._

"_I figured I'd do fine with the ejective consonants—the pronunciation is nastier than you'd think, but it's doable once you get the hang of it—but with all the infixes…man, I was getting them mixed up right up until last night. And it's a lot harder than I ever expected to keep the hard stops out." He shook his head. "Norm's better at it than I am, but he did part of his undergrad on this so I guess he should be."_

_Another shake. "And you wouldn't believe the lenition that can happen on the nouns; it's a really tricky one because it isn't technically _wrong_ to forego it in most situations, but there's a definite difference between the formal and common versions, and which one to use is so situation-dependent that sorting out which one you want is almost an art form. And then it wasn't until halfway through the exam, right in the middle of the multiple-guess section, that I finally realized that I've been mixing up the accusative and ergative with respect to objects. I guess I'm lucky that I caught it before I hit the verbal portion, but with all the other questions to finish, I barely had time to get them all corrected. There were almost three hundred in just that section and I thought my fingers were going to go numb keying in all the—"_

"_Tommy," Jake interrupted with a groan. "You rock, I get it. Can I please go back to sleep? I promise I'll vid you for all the gory details when I'm a little more…conscious."_

"_Come on, Jake, be happy for me."_

_Jake lifted his head again, looking genuinely surprised at that. "Of course I'm happy, idiot, I'm just exhausted. And besides, I don't get why you're so shocked. You decided that you wanted to go to Pandora when we were like ten."_

"_Because I'm one of _two_, Jake. Two out of _everyone_ who applied for the program. Do you know how many people that is? And not everyone else is my twin brother who thinks I should get whatever I want."_

"_Well, you usually d—" Alarms screamed suddenly, and Jake's eyes widened as he rolled out of the bunk, a weapon appearing in his hand. _

It was stranger than Tsu'tey would have believed to see him standing easily on his own two feet. Someone else dropped down beside him, apparently from a bunk on top of his—did they really stack their sleeping quarters so closely?—slapping his arm and muttering something about 'going again' before disappearing from view.

"_Jake?" Tommy asked, eyes wide and every trace of excitement gone._

_Jake barely glanced back at the screen. "Tommy, I have to go. I'll vid you later."_

"_Jake—" _

"_Tommy, now's not the time."_

"_Just be _careful_, okay?" His expression was fierce. "I don't want the best day of my life to turn into the worst day because my idiot twin went and got himself killed."_

_Jake shot him a quick grin, although his focus was still clearly elsewhere. "Hey, your idiot twin is pretty good at keeping himself alive at this p—"_

"_Sully, move it!" someone barked from somewhere off the screen._

_He twisted to look over his shoulder. "On it! Later, Tommy." He reached out, and then that side of the screen went_ _blank._

_/_

Jake's gaze remained on the screen for a moment, until the other side went blank as well, and then he shook his head. "You're Na'vi. What the _hell_ is an ejective consonant? Or clusivity or anything else he was talking about, for that matter?"

Tsu'tey shook his head. "I have no idea. Scientists are strange."

"No argument here."

Tsu'tey indicated the screens. "You looked alike. You and your brother. If you hadn't been saying names, I wouldn't have known which one was you." Well, at least until Tommy had started speaking, anyway.

"Yeah, well, that's how identical twins work." Jake shrugged. "Talking to us was always a pretty sure way to tell us apart—thirty seconds or so into a conversation and you generally knew exactly who you were speaking to, even when we were trying to fool people—but physically it was next to impossible."

"Why did he call you Jacob?"

Jake made a face. "Part of that funny Sky Person naming convention thing. We—Sky People where I'm from, anyway—generally have three names."

"You said two before."

"I said that's how we introduce ourselves. My full name is Jacob Aaron Sully, Jake Sully to most people. The only time all three names ever got used was when my mother was angry at me." He shook his head. "I think that's the only reason that people _get_ three names, actually, so their mothers can use them when they're yelling."

Tsu'tey snorted slightly. "It rarely means good things for me when my mother uses my full name either."

Jake grinned. "Fair enough. Anyway, Jacob is just the formal version of Jake, which I guess is fair game if you're ever particularly pissed off at me. Or want to piss me off. I much prefer Jake."

That was actually useful information, and Tsu'tey nodded.

Jake looked back at the blank screen for a moment and then shut the screen off entirely and swiveled his chair around. "I need to go scanner hunting, and then get some breakfast. Meet you in the hanger when the rain stops?"

Tsu'tey nodded.


	22. Going Home

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

/speech/ = Na'vi

* * *

Jake groaned. "Could you just drop me now? Preferably headfirst and onto something hard?"

Tsu'tey checked his grip and didn't bother to hide a grin. His mother's figure wasn't exactly the first thing that he wanted to see either—at least not when they were coming in for a landing after disarming the last of the mines—but the fact that she was here meant that he would be able to leave for home shortly. And it was just as well; they'd finished the mines faster than either he or Jake had expected, but that was because they'd had to detonate nearly one in four of them as they approached the river. Far more than he would have liked, and he was ready to be far from explosions for a while. Or possibly even forever. "I will not. The scientists would be angry at me."

"Ever heard the phrase 'lesser of two evils'?"

"My mother is not evil. And neither are the scientists." They were all _annoying_, occasionally, of course, but evil was overstating things. He shook his head as Denan alighted on the edge of the platform and twisted to shriek at Sessis. She lifted her head a twisted to shriek in return and then went back to sunning herself.

"What? No, I—never mind." It was Jake's turn to grin. "That's not what I meant. I guess I'll take the AMP out and do some mine collecting this afternoon; that's as good an excuse as any to be elsewhere."

"You will be—" He broke off with a frown, halfway through dropping Jake back down into his wheelchair. "You're bleeding."

"What?" Jake twisted in his grip. "What are you talking about? Let me down."

"You're bleeding," he repeated. "Your leg." Jake wore the same coverings over most of his body that the rest of the Sky People did, but a wet, reddish stain had started to soak through the cloth just above his knee, and he had seen enough Sky People blood during the battle to recognize it for what it was.

Jake glanced down, following Tsu'tey's gaze. "Damn." He shook his head. "Don't worry about it, all right? It's not important. I must have pulled it wrong and reopened the cut. What can I say, it happens when you're dragging yourself around on the ground." He slapped Tsu'tey's arm lightly and then twisted again, harder this time, and after a moment, Tsu'tey put him in his chair.

Jake didn't show any sign of discomfort as he swiveled himself around and reached down for Tsu'tey's crutch, but Tsu'tey was more than slightly tempted to order him to go to the healers, anyway. After all, from what Jake had said, he couldn't even feel any damage that might exist, and Tsu'tey had already given his word that he wouldn't speak to them himself. He was still frowning as he accepted his crutch from Jake and sent Denan winging out of the hanger

Jake pressed the button to make the platform start sinking. "Come on, let's go say hello to the scary doctor lady and then I'll go fix my leg and get gone."

Despite that comment, Jake's greeting to his mother was pleasant enough—even if it was accented and he continued to use 'ma'am' in place of her name—and when Jake excused himself for 'other duties' a few moments later, Tsu'tey decided that he was probably being ridiculous. After all, it was Jake's injury; presumably he knew well enough how to deal with it.

/You are ready to exchange casts and go home, then?/ his mother asked after they had exchanged their own greetings.

/Yes./ Not that she hadn't already known that. And the healers, who no doubt knew that fact as well, were probably waiting for them in his room since she would have radioed that she was coming. He gestured for her to precede him inside.

Switching casts took far less time than he would have expected, even with the Sky People healers' insistence on scanning him with every device in the room. Several of which he didn't actually believe were scanners and had probably been hauled out for the sole purpose of irritating him, but he managed to keep his temper mostly by reminding himself that he wouldn't be going through any of it again. Eventually the metal and wire contraption was replaced with much more appropriate wooden splints and wraps, and although he could have done without the glimpse of how withered his leg was becoming, going unused as it was, it wasn't as though he wouldn't be able to beginning building muscle again shortly.

/All right, try standing up and make sure that you can move with it,/ Max said finally, looking down and nodding at whatever the screen in front of him was showing.

Tsu'tey didn't waste any time obeying that suggestion, swinging his legs over the edge of the bunk and tucking his crutch under his arm. The Na'vi cast was marginally heavier than the Sky People's had been, but the weight difference wasn't enough to bother him as he shifted fully upright. As it turned out, it wasn't any more _comfortable_ than the other had been either, but it was livable.

/Everything looks fine from what I can see,/ Carla said, looking over Max's shoulder and reaching around to tap a few things on the screen. /The bone isn't fully mended, but it's well on the way, and the damaged muscle has healed to the point where it's almost indistinguishable from the rest. The scarring will always be there, but…./ She shook his head. /Atanva, what do you think?/

/I believe that he is able to return to the clan,/ his mother agreed with a nod.

As much as that declaration made Tsu'tey want to rush out of the building, he had been raised better than to do any such thing and would never embarrass himself, his mother, or the People in such a manner. Instead, he managed an appropriately polite expression of thanks to the healers and a request that his thanks be conveyed to the other Sky People who had helped him as well before turning towards the door. He would, of course, remember to thank the others over the radio as he spoke to them—since he still wouldn't be permitted by the Na'vi healers to go out hunting or scouting with a cast on his leg, he'd already decided to take as much radio duty as he could to free up other hunters—but right now he just wanted to _go_. From his mother's expression his words hadn't entirely fooled her, but...well, she was his mother.

She also thanked Max and Carla and the other healers politely—fortunately without drawing it out overly much—before gesturing towards the door. /Shall we go?/

/After you./

When they got back to the hanger, Jake was pulling himself into one of the AMPs…he'd changed the cloth coverings on his legs, but he looked fine otherwise. And Norm was with him, awkwardly strapping himself into a second AMP, which made Tsu'tey feel marginally better about Jake going out again. Two sets of eyes were better than one, even if one set belonged to a scientist.

"You're really headed home, then?" Jake asked before he could say anything.

"Yes. _Finally_." He had no trouble saying that to Jake; it wasn't rude in the way that saying it to the healers would have been.

Jake grinned. "Lucky." He tightened the last of the straps around him and then his shook his head. "But I guess they'll get the pods fixed eventually. Have a good fl—uh, no, Norm, the green one's part of the targeting system. You don't need to hook that up. In fact, please _don't_ hook that up."

"Very funny," Norm said as Tsu'tey snickered. "It's not like I've got any weapons with me anyway. Well, except for this knife thing, and I'm not really sure…." One of his arms swiped awkwardly downwards inside the AMP, the arm of the AMP echoing the movement, but it missed the hilt of the knife by a large margin.

Tsu'tey wondered for a moment if Jake _wouldn't_ be better off on his own—or if he should stay here a little longer, until all the mine pieces had been collected, as much as he didn't want to—but Jake just shook his head. "Just concentrate on walking like normal, and the AMP controls will do the rest, all right? I need your eyes and that net on your back to carry things, not your knife."

Norm didn't look entirely appeased at that, moving his arms cautiously and tracking the movement of the AMP arms alongside it. The machines were apparently more difficult to use than Jake made it look.

"Have a good flight," Jake said, turning his attention back to Tsu'tey, and then nodded to Tsu'tey's mother and repeated himself in—somewhat less-than-perfect—Na'vi. /Have good flight./

Norm looked up from his experiments with the AMP and shot him a smug look before managing a much more proper farewell. Tsu'tey grinned at Jake's scowl and then returned Norm's words and called for Denan. His mother's sharp bark echoed immediately afterwards, and neither ikran could have been far because they came in for steep landings only seconds later.

Tsu'tey swung up onto Denan's back, waiting for his mother to mount Sessis and take to the sky first before sending Denan skywards as well. He raised a hand in farewell to Jake and Norm as she spiraled upwards…the arm of Jake's AMP moved up smoothly in return, while Norm's lurched awkwardly.

/If we fly quickly, we should reach Hometree in time for the night meal,/ his mother said as the two ikran leveled out at an appropriate height.

That would be good, it would allow him to see the entire clan at once, Tsu'tey realized. And for them to see him as well, which was equally important. He called back agreement and asked Denan for greater speed.

As his words had suggested, the flight was fairly long. Longer, in fact, than he had flown in one stretch since he had been injured; long enough that he could feel the muscles in his good leg cramping, and he didn't think that he was going to enjoy dismounting very much; and he couldn't help but feel relief when Denan finally alighted in the upper branches of a large tree beside Sessis. The tree was not as large as it should have been, maybe—it didn't stand nearly as high among the surrounding trees as the home in which he was born had, but….

/Come, the others will want to see you,/ his mother urged, already sending her ikran off.

He did his best to stretch his uninjured leg unobtrusively as he dismounted and then thanked Denan and turned to follow his mother. Now that he was here, he was oddly…anxious. Not that he planned to _admit_ that to anyone, but there was no longer any battle to fight, there was only rebuilding to be done, and whether he could really lead in such a time…he just didn't know.

/Tsu'tey?/ she asked.

/I am coming./ The crutch made climbing down the tree a slower process than it should have been, but it wasn't actually difficult, and he couldn't help but focus his attention on the various aspects of the tree as they went. It was a welcome distraction from what he faced when he reached the base, but there was a sense of wrongness about it all that he found decidedly disconcerting. Things he expected to be in one place were in another, there were branches missing, extra branches where there should be open space to the sky, and he couldn't figure out where all of the ikran were nesting, because there didn't seem to be enough of the kinds of branches that they preferred above him. But this tree was alive and growing and it meant a new life for the clan, and he tried to keep his attention focused on that rather than allowing any sense of displeasure to show.

He could hear a hum of voices below him, a hum that grew louder as he approached, and he made sure that his expression was calm and there was no sign of any tension as he came into full view. His first thought was that it was almost strange to see so many other Na'vi faces after the time he'd spent among the Sky People. Pleasant though, even if something inside him twisted as he got his first visual confirmation of the fact that there weren't as many faces here as there should have been, and he made sure to greet each person that he passed or that approached him and ask after their welfare. It took some time to make his way through the crowd to his seat beside Mo'at and Neytiri, but he felt that the time was well worth it.

/I See you,/ he greeted them when he finally reached them.

/I See you,/ Mo'at returned, echoed by Neytiri.

/You are well?/ Neytiri asked.

/I am healing./

/That was well done,/ Mo'at said quietly, nodding to the people.

/Thank you. I will need to address all of them after the meal./ Not that he was entirely sure what he was going to _say_, but...

/Yes, of course. But it was a good start./


	23. Settling In

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_/speech/=Na'vi (for now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do when everything is happening in Na'vi)_

* * *

Tsu'tey sighed quietly as he lowered himself into one of the unclaimed single hammocks, leaving his crutch balanced on the branch above him. He would be the first to admit that his speech to the clan had not been particularly brilliant: he was healing well and glad to be back with them, they'd done impressive work with the new Hometree in such a short time, the bad Sky People were finally gone, and so on. But despite his best efforts, his words had been scattered and probably overly blunt, and he knew that he'd sounded like an awkward child when compared with the way Eytukan used to address the clan. Even in Tsu'tey's earliest memories, Eytukan's words had always flowed easily, saying just enough to make a point clear, to bring the people together. He didn't know how to do that.

He stared up at the sky for a few minutes and then rolled onto his side, trying to make himself comfortable without putting pressure on his cast. Considering that he'd been sleeping on a flat slab at the Sky People's place, falling asleep should be simple enough here, but…. He grimaced. The fault wasn't the hammock or even the cast on his leg, his inability to calm his mind was what was causing his restlessness.

Despite his wish that he had spoken more eloquently, an unfavorable comparison with Eytukan he could accept. His youth and inexperience put him at a disadvantage, and while it did not entirely excuse his lack of skill, he would work and improve over time. And the People understood that. What he had had a much greater difficulty dealing with was how poor a showing he'd made in comparison with the rousing speeches that Toruk Makto had made before the battle. Someone who was no older than he was, who hadn't had the experience listening to Eytukan, and _still_ he….

He hissed quietly and shifted again, trying to break away from that line of thought and then shook his head firmly when he heard movement from the hammock beside him. He might not be a very good speechmaker, at least not yet, but he _would_ be a good clan leader, and that would have to be enough.

When he awoke again, his leg ached faintly, but it was nothing of any great consequence, and he didn't let it bother him as he climbed down to join the clan for the morning meal. The first thing he would do—well, the first thing he would do after he'd spoken to his warriors and gone over the arrangements they'd made for the clan's feeding and protection, anyway, since being here himself was far different than hearing about it over the radio—would be to get a proper tour of this place. Even as he climbed down to eat with most of his attention on the ground below him, he couldn't help but identify a dozen things that were not where he would have expected them. At least a tour would give him reference points, even if he would still probably need to ask directions occasionally for several days.

/I See you,/ Neytiri greeted, crossing his path as he reached the ground, and he returned the words automatically, falling into step with her as they approached the gathering area. He accepted a leaf roll from a tray being passed and took a seat when he found an open area.

He still wasn't quite sure what to say to her as she sank down beside him, so general pleasantries would have to serve. /You have plans for the day?/

/There is a hunt planned for Taliolang. We've reached the point where the meat harvested from the animals that fell in battle is becoming unusable, and we need to start building reserves again./

Tsu'tey nodded. They'd lost all of their stored meat supply when Hometree had fallen, and while he'd heard that they'd been using the flowing waters of the river and certain herbs to preserve what amounted to pre-cooked meat from the creatures that had died in battle as long as they could, that was only a short-term solution if the meat hadn't been dried properly first. It made sense that large hunting parties would have to start going out again. He would very much like to join them—and he did still have Jake's bow—but…well, as much as he might not like it, he wouldn't be of enough use to risk injuring his leg any more.

A flick of her ears alerted him to an approach behind him before he could make a comment about just how much he wished the cast on his leg was gone, and he turned and rose to his feet to greet his mother and Mo'at.

Neytiri rose as well and standard greetings were exchanged before all four of them took seats again, and then he was forced to submit to a lengthy interrogation—or at least half a dozen questions—from his mother on the state of his leg. Not that he'd really expected anything else, and he did his best to answer with as much dignity as possible. And without admitting anything that might cause her to restrict his movements any more than they already were. Unfortunately, he could hardly snap at her in the same manner he sometimes had at the Sky People healers, which made things draw out longer, and their conversation continued until Jake's name reached his ears. At which point he couldn't help but twist back towards Mo'at and Neytiri.

/—going to take him soup before we leave,/ Neytiri was saying in response to whatever Mo'at had asked about Jake.

/I will go with you,/ he said without thinking.

That drew quick glances from the two of them and a disapproving frown from his mother—probably due to the fact that he was more than a little old to be involving himself in other people's conversations uninvited—but he was curious about the state of Jake's Dreamwalker body, and this was as good of an excuse as any.

/None of the hunters will be leaving until you return?/ he checked as he swallowed the last bite of his roll. He assumed that they wouldn't since she planned to be in the hunting party, but it was possible that a scouting party would go out first, in which case his priority would be speaking to them.

/We will all go together,/ Neytiri said with a nod. /Before you flew in last night, two scouts reported that a large herd was bedded down downriver and had been there for several days./

Which meant that as long as there were no attacks by local predators—unlikely since the Palulukan who'd claimed most of this territory had been killed in battle and Nantang packs preferred to pick off the young and the sickly as a herd moved rather than attack while the creatures were prepared for defense—they would remain in that place as long as there was food readily available. He could see Jake for a few moments and still speak to the Clan's hunters and warriors before they left. He finished the last bite of his breakfast and waited politely for Neytiri to finish hers.

/This way,/ Neytiri said, rising to her feet and gesturing back past the cookfires

Apparently this was routine for her, because Sha'en handed her a bowl of what appeared to be broth that had been sitting to the side of the cooking fire with only a nod. Tsu'tey took a moment longer to greet him properly and then followed Neytiri.

They had to pass through what was clearly the Healers area to reach Jake, and he made a mental note to visit here again when he had a chance. Although from the markings in the dirt and the way the underbrush was stamped down it had clearly been shrunken down from a much larger area, there were still more pallets set out than he was comfortable with. Most of the ones out in the open were currently abandoned, even if the indentations indicated that they were still in use, but those were probably for those who were mobile enough to eat and spend with the clan but not yet well enough to use a hammock. He should probably count himself fortunate that his mother hadn't suggested that _he_ bed down here. He should also probably make sure that he didn't do anything to give her that idea.

There were a few privacy screens set up off to the sides that he didn't approach. The clan's large weavings had been lost with everything else at Hometree, and the fact that someone had taken the time to weave more of them as well as set up the frames necessary to hang them and give some of the injured privacy…. He suspected that some of _those_ injured were still having meals delivered and probably wouldn't appreciate visitors without invitation. Of course, if his mother or one of the other healers indicated otherwise, he would go to them when he could—perhaps this afternoon—but now was not the time.

It was one of those privacy screens that Neytiri ducked around, the one on the far end of the row with a worn path to it that indicated that it got a reasonable amount of traffic. After a moment, Tsu'tey followed her cautiously. Toruk Makto—Jakesully—was lying on one of the floor pallets, and Neytiri knelt beside him quickly. Tsu'tey stared at him for a moment and didn't.

It was obvious from the look in Neytiri's eyes as she propped him up and began to spoon the broth into him that she saw Jake there, even though he made no reaction to her presence. _Could _make no reaction to her presence. It was the same look she'd given Jake the last time Tsu'tey had seen them together; the one that Norm had suggested warranted a bucket of water. A suggestion that Tsu'tey hadn't disagreed with. But…. Tsu'tey shook his head and then finally crouched down himself, injured leg outstretched, and jabbed one limp arm lightly.

He didn't see it. The features of the body in front of him fit, maybe, or at least they were certainly Toruk Makto's and with clear similarities to the Sky Person version of Jake, but it just wasn't the same person he'd become accustomed to. Jake was alive, and this thing...wasn't. Well, perhaps that wasn't the right word—it was technically _alive_ given that he could see it breathing—but...it looked so lifeless.

He poked the arm again, harder this time, and as expected still got no response. Well, aside from a sharp glance from Neytiri. Granted that Tsu'tey had spent as little time around the Dreamwalker as possible when he'd first come to the clan, so maybe he'd _always _looked so lifeless when he slept, but knowing that the blankness came from the fact that there was no soul in that body was something that Tsu'tey couldn't help but find disturbing.

Tsu'tey grimaced and stood again as Neytiri looked back at Jake, smiling and stroking his hair, moving back outside the privacy screen. He needed to go back and make sure the other hunters knew that he wanted to speak to them before they left.

* * *

"Aw, a hunting trip and you didn't even get invited," Jake said with a snicker that came through the radio clearly, and Tsu'tey hissed at the thing. Which only prompted more laughter, but at least no one else was around to hear it. The hunting party hadn't returned yet, which wasn't unexpected given that they'd have to butcher the Taliolang by the river and pack the meat back on pa'li, and he'd ended up watching the radio for most of the day to free up a more mobile scout to keep watch on the outskirts of Hometree.

It had worked out well enough, though, it had put him in a place where others who wished to speak to him could easily find him, and while he hadn't had much to say to Eric or Talia, they'd apparently had their own research to occupy their attention, and he had been here when Jake had come on. Of course, if Neytiri had been there Tsu'tey would have ceded the radio to her at that point, but she wasn't, so the two of them were able to talk. It was good to at least _hear _that Jake was still Jake after seeing the lifeless—soulless—body earlier.

"You didn't get to go either," Tsu'tey pointed out when the laughter stopped.

"Yeah, well, that whole don't-want-to-get-eaten-by-my-own-ikran thing still kind of applies. Anyway, I had to go back out and finish picking up mine bits."

"Did you take Norm again?"

"Yeah. And he tripped. In an AMP." Jake paused. "It was kind of impressive, actually. I mean, do you know how _hard_ it is to trip an AMP? CANGAs like to disco sometimes, sure, but AMPs…." He sighed, and Tsu'tey could almost see him shaking his head. "Anyway, hunting parties of whatever type aside, how are things?"

From his tone, Jake had turned serious, and Tsu'tey did the same. Jake had heard the same reports that Tsu'tey had when they'd both been at the Sky People's compound—after all, for a time he'd been the one to deliver them—but Tsu'tey recounted the discussion from the meeting earlier anyway. It hadn't lasted long since the others had rightfully wanted to begin the hunt while the day was young, but at least he had identified everyone that he needed to speak to in more detail. Most of them he'd already spoken to over the radio at least once, but it had been good to have a direct word with the ones who'd been unwilling to use it.

Of course, he left out the part where he'd gone to ask his second among the ikran makto a question and the man hadn't been there. And the part where a question for the woman who'd led the scouts for as long as he'd been alive that had also gone unanswered for a decidedly awkward span of time. He'd seen last night a visual of how many the clan had lost, had recognized even more keenly exactly what that list of names on the casualty list meant, but somehow he hadn't been able to keep from looking for—and trying to speak to—those lost anyway.

He shook himself. Yes, there were far fewer than there should be, but the clan had survived, and they would grow to full strength again. And the dead would be remembered. That was all that could be done.

"Tsu'tey? You all right?" Jake asked.

Before he could answer—not that he was entirely sure what he would have said—there was some muttering from the other end of the radio that Tsu'tey couldn't quite make out, and then Jake sighed. "Great, apparently I have to go let the doctors jab me with sharp objects. Max is going to take the radio now, but I'll talk to you tomorrow, all right?"

"What is wrong?"

"Nothing. The docs just need to find a hobby."


	24. Bad News

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_/speech/=Na'vi (for now, although I like the idea of switching this to English in the future)_

* * *

Tsu'tey managed to keep pace with Tsa'dran, but it wasn't as easy as it should have been given that, even if he didn't have a broken leg and crutch, his uncle was at least ten years older than his mother and been taking the healers' elixir for aching joints since Tsu'tey had been a child. Tsa'dran had long been one of Eytukan's most trusted advisers, and he'd been dealing with most of the day-to-day details that a clan leader normally dealt with while Tsu'tey had been at the Sky People's compound. Unfortunately, he was one of those who were _very_ unwilling to use the radio, but in the days since Tsu'tey had returned to the clan he'd proved an invaluable resource. And one whose time Tsu'tey didn't mind monopolizing since it had been a long time since Tsa'dran had been an active warrior.

Tsa'dran sprang over a fallen log with ease, and Tsu'tey gritted his teeth and followed, biting back a hiss as his cast knocked against the ground when he landed. According to his mother his leg was healing as well as could be expected—in fact she'd actually mentioned taking the cast off in another few weeks, although he didn't doubt that he'd be forced to use the crutch for some time after that—but he didn't at all enjoy the aches and pains that remained.

Tsa'dran came to a halt only a few minutes later, which was as much a relief for Tsu'tey's pride as his leg, and Tsu'tey found himself looking down over the edge of what appeared to be an old lake bed. It hadn't been visible up until they reached the edge given the thickness of the vegetation, but it was by far the largest dry bed that Tsu'tey had seen.

/It is not a perfect solution,/ Tsa'dran said before Tsu'tey could comment, /to have them even this far away from us, but there is just not enough space in the new Kelutral for all of them to nest comfortably. Our new Hometree will grow, of course, but it will take much more than a few weeks before it reaches an appropriate size. And they do enjoy sunning themselves on the boulders./

Tsu'tey opened his mouth to agree with his assessment and then started as what he'd thought was a reflection of light and red rocks at the far end of the lake bed _moved_, and Toruk raised his head to hiss in their general direction. /He remains _here_?/

/How would you suggest that we drive him off?/

Tsu'tey shook his head. That wasn't what he'd meant. He'd simply assumed that Toruk had left the clan after the battle. After all, there was no reason for him to remain now that the Sky People had gone. /His presence does not disturb the ikran?/ He didn't see Denan among those out in the sun to ask her for himself—although it was possible that she was perched in one of the trees surrounding the lake bed—but given that Toruk _ate_ ikran, knowing he spent his time so close to her certainly disturbed _him_.

/He goes elsewhere to hunt, but since the clan has come to this place, he has sunned himself and slept here. I would say that the ikran are not pleased, but they tolerate him since he has shown no threat and they cannot drive him off either./ He paused. /Mo'at believes that Toruk is waiting./

For Jake, presumably, Tsu'tey realized after a moment, but there wasn't a great deal that he could do about that so he turned his attention back to the ikran sunning themselves on various boulders. /You said last night that all of the clan's ikran have been accounted for, correct? And that those that were injured have been treated?/

/I did. There were seventeen killed outright in battle whose riders survived, and two of the ikran who returned injured did not survive those injuries. There is one who may yet survive but will be without flight, and three others took great damage to their wings and will never fly easily. The rest are healing well, without complications./ He paused. /There are perhaps twenty more that we believe survived since their bodies were not found with or near their riders, but they did not return after the battle./

Ikran who returned to the wild clans after the loss of their riders were rarely seen again, and Tsu'tey had never heard of one bonding a second time, but that was simply the way of things. He was, however, concerned about the nineteen Omaticaya who would need to repeat Iknimaya if they wished to ride again. Of course, not all of those who had lost their ikran would repeat the journey: some had taken physical injuries that would make the attempt all but impossible, others wouldn't consider it worth the risk given their ages or other responsibilities, and there were a few that even he had seen were too heartsick by the loss of their first ikran to attempt it again. And given that the mere idea of losing Denan made his own heart ache, and he couldn't imagine another ever taking her place, he had no trouble understanding that.

But if even ten of the nineteen chose to repeat it...well, there were rarely more than three attempting Iknimaya at once, and the group of five that he had gone with—himself, Sylwanin, Eykir, Alyara, and Pennat—was the largest that had ever seen make the journey together. He couldn't imagine trying to take more than that given how agitated the ikran at the rookery had become by the time Alyara had finally stepped forward. Perhaps if they staged it two or three at a time they could do it that way...it would still be many more trips than usual in a short span of time, but it would give those healing more time since they could go in a later group while those who were ready could go sooner.

He looked out over the lake bed for a moment longer and then nodded and twisted to turn back towards the new Hometree, and the muscles in his leg spasmed viciously under his cast. _He _would have to heal before they staged the trips because he couldn't hope to make the journey right now. Neytiri could always lead them in his place, he supposed, or Eykir or one of the other ikran makto, but Tsu'tey had been leading the journey since he'd officially become Eytukan's second and didn't particularly want to give up that responsibility.

/You will speak at the hunt feast tonight?/ Tsa'dran asked as they began to the walk back.

/I will./ It was tradition after a successful hunt, after all, once the meat had been properly treated and set out to dry, and it was time that the clan had something to celebrate. As little as he was looking forward to making another public speech.

/I would suggest perhaps…planning…your words beforehand. Speaking them to yourself. Or to a friend./

Tsu'tey's ears flicked back against his head momentarily at the reminder of the not-entirely-successful speech he'd made upon arrival, but the words had been spoken as a suggestion, and he couldn't deny that it was a good one.

/Eytukan did this as well, when he was young./

The words had been spoken casually, but Tsu'tey couldn't deny that they made him feel a slightly better. /I will try this./

* * *

/Tsu'tey? Are you up here?/

He looked up from the map—a nice, normal, solid map with proper representations of the surrounding area—that he was studying. The light of the day was nearly gone, but he had thought of no new solutions to suggest to the council tomorrow. They were definitely going to have to do something about the water situation since the tributary from the main river flowed much more slowly through here, but changing the course…. He shook his head set the map down, focusing on the new arrival perched on the branch above his hammock. /Neytiri? I See you. Is there something you need?/

/You need to come./

He tensed, Her ears were flat back, and she looked far more agitated than he'd first realized. /What's wrong?/

/It's Jake. Max says something is bad with him./

Tsu'tey grabbed his crutch and scrambled up onto the branch beside her. If it was Max speaking, she was talking about Jake-Jake not the soulless version that Tsu'tey still didn't like being around. /What is wrong with him?/ Jake had been at the radio earlier, but Tsu'tey had only had a moment to speak with him before he'd gone to examine the sentry posts set up around Hometree. He'd sounded fine when Tsu'tey had passed radio watch to Neytiri though, and when they'd spoken yesterday his only complaint had been about being forced to help Norm transplant a bunch of Rumut.

She shook her head as they climbed down the tree. /I don't know. He didn't say he was hurt, but Teylar just came to Mother and I and said that Max was asking to speak to the two of us and yourself./

Tsu'tey frowned and followed her over to the radio without asking any more questions. That Mo'at had been asked for as well…he didn't think that was a good sign.

"What is wrong?" he repeated with a glare at the device, ignoring courtesy for the moment.

"Jake's sick," Max said, not bothering with a greeting either. "Sepsis, from a decubitus ulcer on the back of one of his legs. There were a couple of them, but one nasty one in particular that, by the time he thought to mention it to anyone, was already badly infected."

"He said he was fine," Tsu'tey said, remembering the blood that had soaked through the cloth on the back of Jake's leg. "That the wounds on his legs weren't important."

"Wha—you _knew_ about them? And you didn't say anything?" That was Carla, and Tsu'tey almost winced at her tone. "What the _hell_; do you people think we just put a bunch of letters after our names for the fun of it?"

Tsu'tey wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to that—he had no idea what she might attach to her name, nor did he know why it might affect what he'd tell her—but Max spoke again before he had to say anything. Of course, he didn't sound particularly happy either.

"Have you even met Jake? The guy's definition of 'fine' doesn't cover much beyond 'not dead'. The first words out of his mouth when he woke up paralyzed were probably 'I'm fine.'"

"No, actually they were 'Get these damn restraints off me.' Hey, Tsu'tey. Is Neytiri there too?"

"I am here," Neytiri said before Tsu'tey could respond. "You are hurt?" Her tail lashed. "You did not say this."

"I—"

"Jake, you need to get back to medical. Now." Max's voice was flat. "The _only_ reason you're able to be up and around is because we've got you pumped full of antibiotics, and given what happened earlier you should know that. Sepsis isn't something you can play around with."

"What does that mean?" Neytiri asked. "You said that before—what is sep-sess?"

"You can't put him in one of the tanks?" Tsu'tey asked at the same time. "They worked for the children." Of course, those had been burns, but surely an open wound was very much the same.

"No," Carla said as Jake and Max's voices overlapped in the background, their words too intertwined for Tsu'tey to understand what they were saying. Although he could clearly tell that neither was very happy. "The tanks work for Avatars or Na'vi, but we don't have the right compounds for human usage. Before, when a human was badly hurt, they just got put in stasis and sent back to Earth on the next transport. But that's not really the issue since the wounds aren't the problem." She paused. "Well, they are _a_ problem, but they aren't the primary one. Sepsis…you can call it blood poisoning, if that helps, but basically his blood is becoming toxic." Carla sighed as the two background voices both rose sharply. "It's getting worse, and while we do have plenty of antibiotics—a side effect of being the last few dozen people on a base that used to hold a couple thousand—there's a limit to their effectiveness."

"Then you are saying that you can't heal him?" Mo'at asked sharply. "Eywa has not given to our healers things that will work on Sky People."

Max and Jake's voices fell, as though they were moving away from the radio, and Carla sighed again. "Until a couple hours ago Jake was just displaying temperature and heart rate fluctuations. Which wasn't _good_, but at least he wasn't getting any worse. But then he started hyperventilating at dinner, and from what I can tell from the latest set of tests…well, the antibiotics aren't cutting it any more. We can try putting him in stasis if we have to—and we will have to if he starts showing any signs of organ failure, since the stasis pods are the only units we have that are capable of dialysis—but we were hoping that you could try moving him into his Avatar permanently sooner rather than later. No matter how stubborn he wants to be about it, the fact is that short of a miracle he's only going to get weaker from here on out."


	25. Preparations

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_/speech/=Na'vi_

* * *

"Jake?" Neytiri asked in the silence that followed Carla's blunt statement, an edge of panic in her voice.

"Sorry," Carla said. "Max just dragged him off. Pretty much literally. It's…he'll be up and around again tomorrow I'm sure, no matter what any of us have to say about it."

"How long can he survive?" Mo'at asked.

Even as he feared what the answer might be, Tsu'tey was just as glad that she'd asked the question. It needed to be asked, and he didn't think that he could have put voice to it. Not with the image of Toktor Grace, too weak to survive passage through the Eye of Eywa, strong in his mind, anyway. And from the expression on Neytiri's face, she certainly wouldn't have been able to do so.

"Not long. Sepsis moves fast, especially at this stage." Carla sighed. "It's been a few years since my residency, but I'd say we're talking a few days—a week at the absolute _most_—before he has to go into stasis. And that's assuming that we can come up with a new drug cocktail that'll slow the progression back down since the current one isn't doing much good any more. But, again, the longer the wait, the weaker he's going to get."

And the more difficult the transition would be for him to make, Tsu'tey had no problem finishing, although she didn't actually say the words. Neytiri's ears were flat against her head, the same thought obviously uppermost in her mind, although Mo'at was still managing to maintain a calm expression.

"If you don't have any more questions, I'm going to give the radio back to Marie and go help Max convince Jake to stay still for awhile," Carla said after a few moments of silence. "Maybe take another look at the broad spectrum antibiotics we have and see if I can come up with a better combination than the one he's on now. But we wanted to let you know what the situation was. If you do have any more questions, or if you want to speak to me or Max or anyone else again, just let Marie know."

Tsu'tey was fairly sure that Mo'at offered her the appropriate thanks, but his mind had moved to the logistics of moving the clan back to the Tree of Souls as soon as possible in order to help Jake make the transition. In theory, it wasn't necessary—Jake's strength and willpower would be the deciding factors, provided that the transition was also Eywa's will—but given that said transition had only been attempted once before, and then unsuccessfully, he didn't see that the clan's presence and prayers could hurt. Nor did he think that any of them would not _want_ to be there for one who was Toruk Makto.

It wasn't as though it was an impossible journey by any stretch of the imagination. This Hometree was slightly further away from the Tree of Souls than the old one had been, but it was still less than two days' journey by pa'li and on ikran it could be done in one. It would be necessary to bring food and supplies on the journey so they would not need to stop and do so on the way, of course, which would take some amount of preparation, but….

He shook his head slightly. The Omaticaya were no longer a homeless clan that had lost everything and was thus traveling unencumbered now, though. They had begun to build a new home, and if they left it unprotected, nantang, riti, and a dozen other forest creatures would undoubtedly raid it in their absence and very probably destroy a much of what had been built thus far. It was a loss that he was more than willing to take for his friend, and he thought that the majority of the rest of the clan would feel the same— again, for Toruk Makto if not Jake— but there was also the fact that there were those who were very young or injured who could not—_should_ not—be taken on yet another journey that cause them to weaken or their injuries to be aggravated. And, from a practical standpoint, taking along the injured and frail would slow the journey considerably. Carla had made it clear that time was something that Jake did not have a great deal of.

/If we leave tomorrow morning, we can be there in two days,/ Neytiri said, obviously fighting down her own worry to offer practical ideas. /We can be ready to begin the journey then./

/Not all of the clan can travel. Certainly not quickly./

Tsu'tey wasn't sure when his mother had arrived, but given the subject of conversation and the fact that she was a healer, Teylar might have decided to fetch her as well after Neytiri and Mo'at. It had been a good thought, and Tsu'tey would have to remember to compliment him. Later. /How many are unfit for travel?/ he asked her.

/Perhaps twelve cannot, and almost as many should not. You are one./

The statement was accompanied by a pointed glare, but Tsu'tey paid the comment exactly as much attention as it deserved—which was absolutely none, even coming from his mother—and glanced at Mo'at. /If I select perhaps ten warriors to stay behind and protect Hometree and those who cannot travel, do you think that we can begin the journey tomorrow?/ He wasn't precisely asking for _permission,_ since as Olo'eyktan he had the right to command such a journey if he wished, but….

/You would do better to ask for volunteers rather than select directly,/ she said with a nod, /although it may come to that in the end. I expect that most will wish to make this journey./

Since that had been his thought as well, he nodded. And very carefully avoided looking at his mother when he spoke again. /I cannot make the journey on pa'li, but I can fetch Jake from the Sky People's place and bring him to the Tree of Souls./

/I—/ Neytiri broke off with an unhappy frown and a quiet hiss as she realized that as much as she might want to, she _couldn't_ go to Jake herself. Well, she could, but on pa'li the journey would take many days given the terrain between here and there, which made it an unusable option. She could fly in with someone, of course, as she had been doing for her visits, but in that case the ikran would likely already be carrying too much weight to take Jake back as well.

/I will need you with me to care for his Uniltirantokx on the journey and then prepare it and the clan for the transition,/ Mo'at said. /We can do some as we travel, but the majority must happen when we arrive./

/You should be leading the journey,/ Tsu'tey's mother said with a frown as Tsu'tey bit back a grimace at the reminder of that soulless body that was the other part of the transition. It would be different later, perhaps, but for now he still didn't understand how she saw Jake there. He made himself turn his attention back to his mother as she finished with, /It is properly your place now./

/I cannot travel on pa'li with my leg in this cast./ His leg couldn't bend properly to ride as he normally would, and he wouldn't travel on one of the litters made for the injured. /And on ikran I will be no more useful than any other scout./ Less useful, in fact, since his cast also negated his ability to complete most of the more ambitious aerial maneuvers that he normally performed with ease. /But I have flown with Jake before—I am the only one who has—and Denan is accustomed to his weight./ She didn't like it, of course, but now was not the time to bring that up.

His mother didn't look overly happy with that declaration, but after a moment she flicked her tail and acquiesced. /I will accompany you. You may both be in need of a healer by the end of the journey. But I will likely be carrying medical equipment, and Sessis is aging. I will not be able to take another./

That was clearly directed at Neytiri, but she seemed mollified by the fact that she could take care of Jake's Dreamwalker body and only nodded slightly before glancing back at Mo'at. /I will prepare a carry-harness for the pa'li./

/I will assemble the clan,/ Tsu'tey said to Mo'at and his mother as Neytiri turned to go. It was late, but not too late; all but the youngest children would still be awake speaking or telling stories or working on crafts. If they were to begin the journey tomorrow, they would have to begin preparations tonight.

Despite her words, Neytiri followed him rather than going to where the pa'li herd rested as he began to move among the small groups, asking them to collect any others that they saw and meeting in the main area. Unfortunately, Tsu'tey wasn't quite sure what he could say to her. He had never been particularly skilled—or, really, even more than marginally tolerable—when it came to offering comfort to others. Especially in a situation like this, where he was worried as well.

He shook his head. Jake had insisted that the wounds were nothing, the bleeding was nothing, but the way Max and Carla had spoken…. Tsu'tey didn't doubt their words, but the idea that Jake could be _dying_ from such a thing seemed almost surreal. But then, so was the idea that Jake could be dying at all. /He is strong. He will survive,/ he finally offered.

Her tail lashed as she spoke for the first time since they'd left the radio. /You cannot know that./

Maybe not, but…. /Jake is strong,/ he repeated. Even in an undersized Sky Person body and broken as he was.

He wasn't sure if she found his words at all helpful since she didn't say anything else, but all of the clan was nearly gathered now, and it was time for him to speak.

* * *

Tsu'tey tried to shift and ease some of the muscles in his leg without his mother noticing. It was, of course, a futile hope, and he knew it, but he couldn't help but try.

/Do you need to rest?/ she asked.

/No. We are not far now./

/It is not a great hurry. We will need to stay at the Sky People's place tonight and start back with Jakesully tomorrow if we are to arrive with the rest of the clan. There is little sense in getting there before them./ Her ears flicked back. /No sense, in fact, since I am not a Sky Person healer./

Tsu'tey shook his head. He had made this flight once before without stopping, and he could do it again. He just hadn't slept much last night. The clan had reacted as he had expected, immediately agreeing to make the journey and starting to make preparations—despite Mo'at's suggestion, he had had to select the ten warriors who would stay behind, and he knew his mother and the other healers had had to forcibly prevent some of the injured from including themselves as well—but time was still passing. And Norm had been uncomfortably quiet this morning when they'd asked about Jake.

Given the look on Neytiri's face when Norm had said that Jake was still sleeping and it wouldn't be a good idea to wake him to come to the radio, Tsu'tey was almost glad that he _wasn't_ with the clan right now. Of course, he was going to see Jake, which might possibly be worse, but given how agitated she'd been when they'd been loading the pa'li with supplies for the journey…well, he didn't think that she'd be a pleasant traveling companion.

The Sky People's compound came into view on the horizon, and Tsu'tey asked Denan to dive towards it. She wasn't entirely happy with his request, but when he assured her that they would be leaving again tomorrow, she did as he asked.

/I See you, Tsu'tey,/ Max greeted as they landed outside the hanger. /I See you, Atanva./

/I See you,/ she returned with a nod.

Tsu'tey echoed her words as he swung down off Denan and tucked his crutch under his arm. /How is Jake?/

/He's tied into an…./ Max frowned and then shook his head and switched to English. "He's tied into an IV drip at the moment and not at all happy about it, but physically he's doing about as well as can be expected."

/You can explain what a healer might need to do for him on the journey?/ Tsu'tey's mother asked. /I know nothing of Sky People injuries./

/Carla and I can. This way, please./ He gestured towards the building behind him.

Tsu'tey and his mother followed him inside, much to the displeasure of both Denan and Sessis. Apparently leaving tomorrow was not soon enough for either ikran if their riders were leaving them, and Tsu'tey wasn't surprised when they took to the air again with unhappy shrieks.

/Carla said she'd put a pack together for the trip,/ Max said to Tsu'tey as he pulled off his mask and hung it beside the door, /but Jake's resting in his room if you want to go see him./ He shook his head. "Technically he _should_ be in medical, but he pitched a fit about staying there, and since the IV and the monitoring equipment are mobile we decided not to force the issue."

Given that he had absolutely no interest in listening to the healers, nor was he likely to be of any use to them anyway, Tsu'tey nodded and turned down the corridor that angled off the one the two of them were taking. He hadn't missed having to move around in a crouch, but it wasn't as though he hadn't had plenty of experience with it, and he remembered the way to Jake's room clearly enough.

There was no response when he tapped lightly against the metal panel, and he finally opened the door cautiously and peered inside. "Jake?"

Jake was lying on his side on his bunk, his eyes closed and his wheelchair sitting empty beside him, and he didn't respond to Tsu'tey's question. Tubes carrying some kind of liquid ran into his arm from two hanging bags, and a wire ran to the back of his hand from a metal box, and if the faint beeping from the box didn't mean anything to Tsu'tey, presumably it did to the healers here.

After a moment, Tsu'tey stepped inside and crouched beside him. "Jake?" He frowned when Jake's eyes remained closed and then reached out to nudge his shoulder lightly. Perhaps it was the wrong thing to do and he should allow Jake to remain asleep, but Tsu'tey found the stillness disturbing, especially after what he'd been told last night. Jake didn't _look_ so different than he had the last time Tsu'tey had seen him, but…. "Brother?"

Eyelids twitched slightly, and then one eye opened as the beeping increased in speed slightly. "Mm?" Jake blinked and then stared up at Tsu'tey. "Hey. Didn't you go home?"

"Yes," Tsu'tey agreed. "But now I am back. And you must come with me tomorrow."

"Hm? Oh. Right." Jake yawned. "Man, how long have I been asleep?" He didn't wait for an answer, which was just as well since Tsu'tey didn't have one. "Whatever they've got me on now knocks me out like nothing else." He rubbed his eyes and then pushed himself into a sitting position—something that seemed to take him far more effort than it ever had the other times that Tsu'tey had seen him move—and then hunched forward abruptly and made a choking sound.

"Jake?" Tsu'tey put out a hand, prepared to keep him from falling forward off the bunk. His skin was normally oddly pale to Tsu'tey's eyes, but he had never seen it turn so close to white before.

Jake took a few deep breaths and then straightened and scowled at the tubes going into his arm. "It's nothing. I'm fine, don't worry about it."

"The way you use 'fine' is _not_ with the meaning I was taught. Or Max or Carla or anyone else was taught, it seems." He was beginning to understand some of the healers' frustration when it came to uncooperative patients.

That got a quick grin as Jake swiped at his eyes again. "Really, don't worry. I just don't feel so well. It's because of the antibiotics and whatever other crap it is that they're pumping into me. I mean, I know I need it, I don't need _that_ lecture again, but the side effects are kind of nasty."

It was Tsu'tey's turn to scowl as he set his crutch down and shifted to sit on the other bunk. "You should have told the scientists that you were hurt." Or had not made Tsu'tey say he would not tell them.

Jake looked away, grimacing. "Yeah, I guess I did screw that one up pretty good. But I just figured that it was like every other sore I've gotten since I ended up in that damn chair and would eventually heal up on its own. When I realized that it was getting worse instead of better I did tell Max, but by then it was a little late." He shrugged and then shook his head. "So I didn't figure you'd be my ride to the Tree of Souls."

"I have flown with you before. And Denan is used to you and understands that she should not bite you. Another ikran might forget itself and decide to eat you when its rider wasn't looking."

Jake grinned. "Great, there's a nice thought."

Tsu'tey smirked. "And my mother came with me. She is speaking to the healers now."

Jake groaned. "I don't suppose I could convince someone to slap me in a stasis pod for the trip?"

"No."

"Worth a shot." He shifted himself backwards slightly, leaning against the wall and pulling a blanket around behind him. Which seemed odd to Tsu'tey, given that it was not cold, but Jake started speaking before he could ask. "So how goes life at the new Hometree? Last time I talked to you, you were starting to say something about the clan needing more water?"

* * *

"Uh, he hasn't eaten anyone—or anyone's ikran—right?" Jake asked.

"No. That you would have been told about."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jake shook his head. "I just figured he'd have taken off after the battle. I mean, I didn't ask him to hang around."

Tsu'tey shrugged. "Mo'at believes that he is waiting for you."

"Huh. Well, I do owe him a thank you; I guess that makes it easier." He shook his head again. "I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry. You've been here for what—two, three hours? It's got to be nearly dinner time. Not that I've been able to keep much down with that stuff going in to me," he gestured at the hanging bags, "but I should probably go prove to Max and Carla that I haven't keeled over—died—yet."

Tsu'tey nodded. He and his mother hadn't eaten more than a light snack on the flight here, and his stomach was beginning to inform him that it was time that he ate a meal as well. Hopefully there was still appropriate food in the cafeteria.

Jake began to pull himself across the bunk towards his wheelchair, and Tsu'tey debated whether or not to offer assistance. Normally it was a maneuver that Jake completed with ease, and even if Tsu'tey had already noticed that he was having much more difficulty moving around today, that didn't mean that he would welcome help.

Jake lurched forward again as he had earlier, and the decision was made as Tsu'tey automatically reached out and braced a hand under his chest to prevent him from falling. But something was wrong, because he could _feel_ Jake's heart pounding against his hand, and the beeps from the machine that Tsu'tey had managed to ignore during their conversation were suddenly louder and much more rapid. "Jake?"

Jake shook his head but didn't say anything as his fingers curled into the fabric on the bunk and his breathing increased in speed as well.

"Jake?" Tsu'tey tried again.

Again Jake didn't respond—this time he didn't even show any signs of having heard as quick breaths changed to outright gasps—and for lack of any idea what else to do, Tsu'tey shook him lightly.

"Jake, stop!"


	26. Last Day

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_I got a couple questions about where this story was going to end. If I ended it where I initially planned (at least after I got it outlined out properly), there would be one or two more chapters after this one. However, stopping there leaves several loose ends that I'd like to tie up. So while I'm not sure whether I'll end this story in the next couple of chapters and start a new one or just keep Broken People going, the general storyline will probably continue for awhile._

* * *

He was not a healer. He was certainly not a Sky Person healer. But Jake was still gasping, and shaking him hadn't helped at all, and Tsu'tey was starting to think that he was going to have to leave and find someone who did know what to do. Except that that would mean either leaving Jake alone, which seemed like a very _bad_ idea, or picking him up and taking him along, which with the tubes and wires attached to him didn't seem any better, but…no. Wait. He could call the healers. There had been a device to do so in his room when he'd been injured, so surely there was one in—

"Move!"

Tsu'tey hadn't even had time to do more than lift his head to look for the device when Carla—who was not precisely large, even for a Sky Person—nearly knocked him over in her haste to reach Jake. She jammed something into his arm and then grabbed a clear cup-like object with tubes attached off the side of one of the machines and shoved it over his mouth and nose. "Jake, calm down. Nice, slow breaths, remember?" She twisted to scowl at Tsu'tey. Why are you staring at me like an idiot? Get him sitting upright! Being hunched over like that isn't helping anything!"

Shifting Jake fully upright required only a light push on his part, and after an indeterminable amount of time, Jake's breathing finally began to slow again.

Jake reached up a moment later and pushed the cup away. "Damn it. I am _really_ getting sick of that."

"Join the crowd," someone muttered from behind Tsu'tey, and he twisted to find that Max had entered with Carla while his mother and Norm waited out in the hall.

"What were you trying to do?" Carla demanded. "I told you not to exert yourself."

"I _wasn't_. I just going to go to the cafeteria and get some food. This is the first time in like three days that I've actually felt hungry."

She shook her head. "I'll bring you something if you think you can keep it down, but you are not leaving this room. You're going to sit there and try not to set this damn alarm," she pulled something off her belt and waved it before tucking it back into place, "off again. I swear you've scared a decade off my life in the last two days."

Jake didn't look at all happy at that pronouncement, but he didn't argue. Which didn't make Tsu'tey feel any better. From what he'd seen before, Jake should have fought that, and if he _wasn't_... At least after another few careful breaths Jake did manage to pull himself back against the wall, taking his weight off Tsu'tey's hand, without another choking fit.

"I'll be back in a few minutes with dinner," Carla said after a moment.

Jake's glare didn't lessen, but he still didn't object, either.

For his part, Tsu'tey didn't like the idea of leaving Jake alone, but the others were going, and presumably the device on Carla's belt had been what had alerted her to Jake's trouble and would do so again if anything else happened. "I'll come back later."

Jake barely acknowledged his words, and he stepped back into the corridor with a frown and then turned, hurrying to catch up with his mother and the others. Norm was to the back of the group, and after he'd caught up, Tsu'tey matched his pace. /What's wrong with him? Why was he choking? Carla said Jake's blood was poisoning him, not that he couldn't breathe./

"He wasn't really choking, he was hyperventilating. It's one of the symptoms of sepsis, and when it happens, the issue isn't that he's not getting enough air, it's that his blood chemistry has been alt—" Norm must have seen Tsu'tey's expression because he broke off with a shake of his head. /Sorry, I'm guessing you don't want all the technical stuff, right?/

/No./ If he had, he would have gone with his mother and Max earlier. He just wanted a simple explanation for why Jake had been choking. Or hyper-venillating. Or whatever it was he'd been doing.

/What happened is a symptom of the blood poisoning, like I said before. His blood is…going bad./

From his expression those weren't exactly the words he wanted, but Tsu'tey doubted that he'd understand if Norm used the words he did want, so he didn't press for details.

/That was probably the third or fourth time it's happened,/ Norm continued, /the second time I've seen it, and it's scary as hell every time. Oxygen and extra medicine help, but not enough./

There wasn't much that Tsu'tey could say to that, so he remained silent as they collected their meals—which fortunately included fresh fruit and jerky for himself and his mother—and took seats around the table.

"I'm going to take a plate to Jake," Carla said as she set her tray down on the table. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Conversation was muted as they ate…Tsu'tey didn't have much to say, and the conversation full of medical and healing terminology going on between Max and his mother that wasn't of any real interest to him. He tried asking Norm a few questions about the Rumut he'd been working with, but Norm's concentration was clearly elsewhere, and honestly Tsu'tey wasn't sure that he'd have been able to focus on any answers Norm gave anyway.

Carla's return was heralded by the sound of a mostly-full tray being slammed down on one of the back counter tops, and she shoved the plates on it back into one of the cold units without saying anything.

"What's wrong?" Max asked.

"Three bites, and he couldn't keep it down." She dropped down at the table and poked at the food on her tray. "And it was harder than it should have been for him to grab the trash can, too."

"It's not the end of the world," Max said after a minute. "He's on the nutrient IV for a reason. He'll be okay for another day."

"He's fading too fast. He can pretend as much as he wants, but..." She shook her head. /You're sure you'll be able to do this ceremony tomorrow?/

The question was directed at Tsu'tey, and he nodded. /The clan will arrive at the Tree of Souls tomorrow afternoon, and we can also make the flight in one day. There are preparations to make, but Mo'at understands the urgency./

/Good./

He looked at the remains of his food—for lack of anything to speak about, he'd eaten quickly—and then pushed himself away from the table and tucked his crutch back under his arm. /I am going back to see Jake./

/He's probably not in the mood for company right now,/ Carla warned.

Tsu'tey shrugged. Jake had visited him many times when Tsu'tey hadn't wanted to see anyone; he saw no issue in doing the same in reverse. When he reached Jake's room, he could hear faint sounds emanating from inside, and he tapped lightly on the door. "Jake?" No response, and he opened the door. "Jake?"

Jake was lying on his back on his bed, and he looked at Tsu'tey for a moment before rolling onto his side and turning his face to the wall, putting his back to Tsu'tey.

Tsu'tey decided that that was as much of an invitation as he was going to get and moved into the room, taking a seat on the other bed. "This is Sky Person music?" The sound was clearly not made by anyone singing, nor was it accompanied by anyone singing as Na'vi music normally was, but he didn't think that it could be anything else. It sounded strange, but not entirely unpleasant.

Jake didn't respond for a few minutes, still facing away from Tsu'tey and then, "You aren't going away, are you?"

"No. Tell me about the music."

"I don't know, it's some orchestra somewhere."

"Why are you listening to it if you don't know what it is?"

"Because it's what came on when I pulled up Tommy's playlist."

"Play…."

Jake sighed and rolled himself back over to face Tsu'tey. "This is payback for me not leaving you alone before, isn't it?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Everybody involved with the Avatar program was allocated a couple terabytes of computer space to load whatever they wanted for downtime entertainment. Vids, music, books, that kind of thing, so they wouldn't go crazy with nothing to do. Like I told you, I got pulled in kind of late, so I didn't have time to upload much of anything, but they never deleted what Tommy put in, and he picked a stupid password—at least for someone who grew up with him—so…." He shrugged.

Tsu'tey considered for a moment. "There is more music than this? Can you make it play something with singing?"

* * *

"You are ready?" Tsu'tey asked as Carla allowed him back into the room. The tubes and wires were no longer attached to Jake, replaced with small packs attached to the inside of each elbow, and he gave Tsu'tey a quick grin.

"As I'll ever be." Jake stretched, pulling the projector from the shelf beside his bed and then unhooking the metal jewelry from around his neck and wrapping it around the box quickly before holding the whole thing out towards Tsu'tey. "Can you hold on to these for me until the transfer is done? I don't want to chance losing them."

"I will." He had no idea why Jake would want to keep such pathetic jewelry, but it was no trouble to carry it, and he tucked the whole thing into his carry pouch.

Jake started to drag himself towards his wheelchair, but after the events of yesterday, Tsu'tey wasn't about to wait for him to start breathing wrong again, and picked him up and dropped him into it before he could object.

"I can do that _myself_."

"You couldn't yesterday. And you have to be _alive_ when we get to the Tree of Souls if you want to make the transfer. It would be stupid to die now."

Jake scowled but didn't say anything else as he took a deep—slow—breath and then wheeled himself out of the room. Where Norm was waiting, and he promptly caught the handles on Jake's wheelchair and began to push him along.

"Carla wanted to grab something else from medical, but she said you aren't supposed to exert yourself," he said quickly. "And Tsu'tey still has to use his crutch."

Jake muttered something that Tsu'tey couldn't make out, which was probably just as well, but with Norm's assistance the three of them made their way to the hanger.

"All right, you've got your antibiotic packs on," Carla said, pulling her mask on as she hurried up to them. "And Atanva has the emergency injectors. I assume you're flying with Tsu'tey?"

Jake nodded.

"All right. Tsu'tey, see this?" She held up a plastic cup with an odd fixture on the base. "If he starts hyperventilating again, mask comes off, this goes over his mouth and nose, and press this button here. Then get the mask back on and land so Atanva can do the rest. Got it?"

"I can—"

"No, you can't," she interrupted. Jake glared at her, but Tsu'tey nodded in understanding and took the device. If what happened yesterday happened again, Jake _wouldn't_ be able to deal with it himself, no matter how much he might want to. "I will remember."

"All right, then." She stepped back beside Norm as Denan and Sessis dove in for landings. "Have a good flight. And, Jake, radio as soon as you can."

That got a nod from Jake. "Will do. Max. Norm."

Both of them nodded in return, and Norm gave a polite farewell from the group to Tsu'tey and his mother as well.

Tsu'tey returned his words as his mother sent Sessis skyward, making Tsaheylu with Denan and swinging Jake onto her shoulders. Less than a day of flying, and Jake would be in a whole body again.


	27. In Flight

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_I've gotten a couple different opinions as far as making everything one story or breaking it into two, and I think I'm going to split the difference. This story will be a little longer than I originally planned and tie up some of the loose ends, and then the second one to deal with the rest will take up after a time lapse. (Probably a time lapse both in the story and in real life because for some reason the plot bunnies from a dozen different fandoms have been after me lately and I don't see trying to make good progress on six stories at once ending well, but we'll see how that goes.)_

* * *

Jake wasn't fighting him. Or even complaining. It was bothering Tsu'tey more than he cared to admit. They'd been in the air for nearly an hour as the Sky People measured time, and by now Jake should be insisting that he could hold on just fine by himself and there was no need for Tsu'tey to keep an arm around his waist. Which would normally be perfectly true, especially since Denan was flying a level course. Much to her displeasure. Today, though, he hadn't so much as twisted in Tsu'tey's grip, and the hold he had on Tsu'tey's wrist wasn't as strong as it should have been either.

"Jake?" Tsu'tey asked as Jake's head suddenly lolled to one side. No response, and he shook him lightly. "Jake? Jake, _answer_."

He saw his mother twist back towards them, but most of his attention was—

"Tsu'tey?" Jake's neck straightened again and he shook his head, but when he spoke, his words were slurred. "Where are w…? Oh. Flying. Tree of Souls. Right." His shoulders slumped again. "Ow."

"What? What 'ow'?" Jake admitting any sort of pain was even more bothersome than his lack of complaints had been, especially since there wasn't a great deal that Tsu'tey could do for him. He looked back at his mother, debating whether he should land and get her to do something, and then shook him again. "_Brother._"

For a moment he didn't think that he was going to get an answer—in which case he _was_ going to land—but after a moment Jake did straighten and twist to look back at him, and when he spoke again he sounded more alert. "What?"

"Are you all right?" He recognized the futility in the question as soon as the words were out of his mouth—Max's comment about Jake using the word 'fine' to mean little more than 'not dead' had been entirely accurate—but….

"I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

Exactly as useful—or more accurately as use_less_—as Tsu'tey had expected, and he hissed quietly, but since Jake didn't show any sign of falling unconscious again he kept Denan in the air. Although he did make sure that his grip was strong enough that even if Jake fell asleep again, there was no chance of him falling. Unfortunately, it wasn't the easiest position for him to fly in, and before much more time had passed, he was forced to signal his mother for a landing.

"Tsu'tey? What's up?" Jake asked as Denan dove through the canopy and alighted on an appropriately thick branch, finally tugging at Tsu'tey's grip.

"Sky. Also branches." Not that that had anything to do with what Jake was asking, as he'd learned during his time at the Sky People's place, but even from one who was ill, foolish phrasing like that deserved a foolish answer. Jake found enough strength to glare at him, and Tsu'tey bared his teeth in return. "We will take a short rest here."

Jake frowned. "Are you okay?"

He leapt off Denan and onto the branch, but the impact jarred his leg harder than he'd expected, and he turned his head to hide his wince. "I am fine."

His mother, who'd obviously seen his pain, hissed quietly. /I will _not_ be pleased if you begin to use that word as he does./

Jake—again proving that his understanding of Na'vi was tolerable, even if his speech was still pathetic—snickered at that, and if he hadn't been worried about damaging him further, Tsu'tey would have 'accidentally' dropped him onto the branch when he lifted him off Denan's shoulders. As it was, he set him down carefully and made a mental note to take revenge later. Although…. He caught Jake's expression as his mother began to poke at him, checking him over, and didn't hide his own snickers. Though he did make sure that his tail was well clear of danger.

* * *

/He is sleeping again,/ Tsu'tey said as they landed for the third time. He did not _like_ it when Jake slumped forward as they flew, and while after the last time his mother had ordered him not to try to wake Jake if it happened again, it was difficult to resist the urge.

/As I told you, Carla said that it is to be expected. It is better that he sleep now and be rested later than force himself to remain awake while we fly and arrive at the Tree of Souls exhausted./

Tsu'tey couldn't precisely argue with her logic, but that still didn't mean that he liked it. He swung off Denan and lifted Jake down to the branch so Denan could stretch, and he barely even stirred.

/How is your leg?/ she asked as she examined Jake quickly, replacing the packs on his arms with others that Max and Carla must have given her. During the entire procedure he, again, didn't so much as open his eyes.

/It is—" he cut himself off before the word 'fine' passed his lips. Jake was a bad influence. "—as well as can be expected." Which was perfectly true; he would be sore tomorrow, but it was nothing that he couldn't live with.

/Hm./ She didn't look convinced, signaling for him to stand still so she could examine him as well. /You will be in pain tomorrow, I think. It may be best if I take him for the next part of the journey./

/I can do it. Denan is accustomed to him./ It was the same argument that he had used originally, but it was still true, and besides, he didn't think Jake's reaction if he woke up on a different ikran and being held by his mother would be particularly good. And it wasn't as though Jake was heavy; if he didn't have a cast on the journey would be simple.

His mother shook her head, a flash of amusement crossing her face, and he flicked his ears in inquiry.

/You were very young so you likely do not remember, but you were rather incensed when Neytiri was born./

/What?/ How did that relate to the fact that he could continue to carry Jake?

/I've forgotten the precise wording now, but your reasoning was that you saw no reason why, if Sylwanin got a sister, you should not then get a brother. Your father had just gone to Eywa and I tried to explain that it did not work that way—much to your displeasure; you found the entire situation very unfair—but perhaps Eywa would grant such a thing in the future. I must admit, this is…not what I expected./

Tsu'tey shook his head, although he did understand her humor. She was correct that he didn't remember any such thing, but he had no difficulty believing that he'd said it. He glanced at Jake. And to be fair, he hadn't exactly expected things to work out as they had either.

She flicked her ears in dismissal and then glanced up at the sky. /I do not like the stress you are putting on your leg, and you will likely pay a price tomorrow, but the cast is stable so if you are certain that you can continue to carry him, we should continue./

* * *

Tsu'tey ignored the once-again cramping muscles in his good leg, ignoring the pointed glance his mother gave him as he pressed Denan to continue. The wind had been against them for the last portion of the journey, and the clan would be approaching the Tree of Souls now. He did not want them—or Jake—to have to wait any longer than necessary. As it was, it would be past dark before the ceremony could commence, and he couldn't help but remember Toktor Grace's—

Jake shifted abruptly in his grasp, twisting and then craning his neck to look up at Tsu'tey. "I like those ribs, brother; ease up."

He relaxed his arm slightly and muttered an apology.

Jake reached up to rub at his eyes and then grimaced as his hand hit the facemask and dropped it back down to Denan's neck. "It's getting late. How long have I been out?"

"Out where?"

"Asleep."

"For some time. You didn't even awaken the last two times we landed." And the time before that he'd barely done more than blink at Tsu'tey when he'd been lifted off Denan. Tsu'tey still found the unresponsiveness disturbing, despite his mother's repeated assurance that Jake's heartbeat and breathing were within the parameters that Carla had given her.

"Damn." Jake turned to look past Denan's neck, picking absently at the pack on one arm. "Are we close? Kind of hate to be late to my own party."

"We will arrive shortly, although the clan may be there before us," he admitted. "We have just passed your moe—moe-bile?—base." He gestured back behind them, although he didn't think Jake would be able to see it past Denan's wing. And even if he could, the structure was nearly obscured by greenery.

"Oh, okay." Jake barely glanced in that direction, obviously taking Tsu'tey's word for it. "And yeah, it's 'mobile.' It just means movable."

And they didn't say movable because…? Tsu'tey didn't bother to ask the question, though. And despite his words, Jake didn't seem particularly upset about the clan arriving before them, simply nodding and rolling his shoulders slightly.

"How are you holding up?" he asked after a minute, again twisting to look back at Tsu'tey. "This is way longer than we've flown before."

"It is no great difficultly. The short rests have been enough."

Apparently the sleep had been good for him because although Jake didn't speak again immediately, he did continue to look around, obviously more feeling more alert than he had for any previous part of the journey. "Hey, do they have riders?"

"What?"

Jake gestured off into the distance. "I'm pretty sure that's a bunch of ikran over there, but I can't tell if they've got riders or not."

Tsu'tey narrowed his eyes and followed Jake's arm. The fact that he was staring into the light made it difficult to make out the coloring of the lead ikran approaching on the oblique, but it was the first of many flying in a standard covering formation so it was almost certainly Eykir and the ikran makto pacing the clan. There were probably other ikran with riders ahead and behind the main body, but singles would be much more difficult to pinpoint in the light. Assuming the scouts weren't already at the Tree of Souls preparing for the arrival of the others. "It is the cl—," he started to say to Jake, only to break off abruptly.

"Tsu'tey?"

_/Mean/annoying/takes-the-good-sun,/_ came an irritated thought from Denan as she glanced in that direction as well and hissed.

"What is it?" Jake asked.

"Toruk is with them." It was the only thing the form flying behind the ikran could be, given its size. And Denan's opinion, since if another ikran ever tried to take a sunning spot from her, she wouldn't hesitate to drive it off as viciously as necessary.

"Huh. Guess I'll get to thank him sooner than I expected."


	28. Transitions

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Slightly shorter chapter than usual, but I'll try to get the next part up soon._

* * *

The clan did reach the Tree of Souls shortly before he, his mother, and Jake did, but it wasn't by any great amount. Unfortunately, Tsu'tey realized as their ikran circled the Tree of Souls that they had a slight problem. They hadn't brought Jake's wheeled chair along—he hadn't even thought about it, since Jake should have no need it after this—and if he landed Denan with the other ikran, Jake would have no way to get to the base of the tree.

He certainly wouldn't be able to drag himself that far…it might have been possible, albeit _slow_, if he wasn't sick, but as hard as it was for him to even move into his chair now, such a distance would be impossible. Tsu'tey could carry him, of course; it wasn't as though he was particularly heavy, and while the crutch would make it more awkward, it wasn't impossible. But that assumed that Jake wouldn't fight him about it, and Tsu'tey didn't think that he could get guarantee of that. If the clan wasn't present, maybe, but with so many observing them, Jake would not want help. It was understandable—if their situations were reversed, neither would he—but if he had to force the issue it would not be pleasant.

Sessis dove in for a landing, but Tsu'tey asked Denan to circle the tree again. It was somewhat improper, but he could land Denan in the clearing. It made for a much shorter carrying distance, and Jake was going to be stared at anyway.

"What's wrong?" Jake twisted to look back at him. "I think we're supposed to be headed down there."

"Yes, b—" Tsu'tey broke off, baring his teeth in a grin as he caught sight of Neytiri in the clearing below. With a tolerable amount of space surrounding her. It was not a _nice_ idea that he had, but it should work reasonably well.

"Tsu'tey?" Jake asked.

Tsu'tey broke Jake's grip on his wrist easily and shifted his hold from around Jake's waist to around his chest, pinning his arms to his sides, before sending Denan into a steep dive. Jake yelled something that might have been a curse, but he ignored it, barking sharply get Neytiri's attention as they approached. Not that a rapidly-approaching shadow shouldn't be warning enough, but one never knew.

Denan flared her wings and inverted, sweeping across the clearing at just above head-height, and Tsu'tey released his grip and dropped Jake about an arms-length down to Neytiri. It was a greater distance than he might have liked, but any closer risked Denan clipping Neytiri or one of the others who stood around. Neytiri caught Jake with a surprised squeal, and Jake gave another shout that was more than half-surprised as well. Tsu'tey grinned and left them both behind as Denan righted herself—with a definite sense of satisfaction—and swept upwards again before dropping back down to land where the other ikran rested. And Toruk, who was sitting on a conveniently-sized boulder and ignoring the commotion going on around him. Including the hiss that Denan aimed in his direction. Now that Neytiri had Jake, _she_ could worry about carrying him wherever he needed to go. Tsu'tey suspected that she'd get much less of a fight about it.

His mother gave him a more than slightly unamused look as he swung down off Denan, but from his perspective, he'd just saved them all a lengthy argument so he wasn't going to worry about it. Half a dozen of the ikran makto were standing on a boulder overseeing the clan's activity, and he unhooked his crutch from its attachment on Denan's harness and went to join them. It took more work than he would have liked to hide the ache in his good leg, but he managed.

/I See you,/ he greeted the group.

/I See you, Olo'eyktan,/ Eykir returned, his words echoed by the others.

/The clan has all made the journey safely?/ Tsu'tey checked.

/For the most part. There was some difficulty at the second river crossing. The water is running higher than usual from the recent rains, and a large branch came downstream too quickly for us to signal a warning and swept several pa'li under. They were all able to recover and reach the opposite bank with their riders, but there were several who took minor injuries. Including the Tsahik./

/Mo'at?/ Tsu'tey's ears flicked back. He hadn't seen her with Neytiri, but then, he hadn't looked particularly closely. He'd simply assumed that she was around. /How badly is the Tsahik hurt?/ It was not a good sign, her being injured immediately before such an important ceremony.

/Not severely. Kayin?/

/I saw the cuts on her arm myself,/ the youngest of the group said, stepping up beside Eykir, /and none were deep. The healers say that several of her ribs were bruised as well, but none are broken, and she is expected to recover fully./

/That is good. Thank you for your report./ Although he was still not pleased to hear that she'd been injured at all.

/_That_ is really Jakesully?/ Eykir gestured towards the raised roots near the tree trunk where Jakesully's soulless Dreamwalker body lay and Neytiri sat fussing at Jake himself. Trying to get him to take off his Sky Person garments and running out of patience with his protests, if their gestures and her twitching tail were any indication. /He is very…small,/ Eykir continued after a moment. /And he has no queue./

/None of the Sky People do./

Eykir curled his lip at that and a few of the others muttered under their breath, and Tsu'tey couldn't entirely blame them. He might be used to seeing Jake and Norm and Max and Carla and the others at the Sky People's place now, but that didn't change the fact that they were still decidedly odd looking.

Apparently Neytiri won the argument because Jake finally tugged his shirt off, and Tsu'tey shook his head and turned back to Eykir. /You have set up a perimeter around the Tree of Souls?/

/Of course. Do you wish to walk it?/

Tsu'tey nodded and gestured for Eykir to precede him. The clan might be planning to hold an important ceremony tonight, but there was no expectation that Pandora's predators would respect such a thing, and although the ikran and pa'li would alert them if anything particularly dangerous approached—unlikely, given that Toruk was still with them—a Na'vi guard was a necessary precaution.

* * *

The sky's light had almost fully died by the time the entire clan was settled and Jake was prepared for the transfer. At Mo'at's signal, Tsu'tey broke of his conversation with two of the scouts and stepped into his position, trying not to think about the last time they'd done this. The time that had failed. Toktor Grace's body—bodies, technically—had been fully absorbed by the tree and no sign remained, but Jake still seemed paler than he should be, and the wound on the back of his leg was…not pleasant to look at.

Jake shifted to look at him. "You know, that was—" he broke off coughing for a moment, muttered a curse when he tried to put his hand to his mouth and bumped it against the mask instead, and then shook his head and continued speaking. "That wasn't funny, earlier. I could have landed on my head."

Unlikely, considering that Neytiri had been right there. He tried to smirk, although that cough didn't ease his worries. "I found it funny. And Denan enjoyed it as well." His grin widened, becoming almost real as Jake muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'she would.' "Besides, I believe the healers would agree that your skull is far too thick to be damaged."

"You're one to talk."

Obviously he was speaking, and Tsu'tey was about to ask what _that_ particular ridiculous Sky Person phrase meant when Mo'at hissed at them both to be silent. She looked well, at least…he'd noticed when he'd spoken to her earlier that she was favoring her ribs on one side somewhat, but the cuts on her arms were better described as scratches than anything else, and only two had been bandaged. She'd assured him that she would be 'fine,' which would have made him laugh if the circumstances hadn't been so serious.

Jake gave him a quick grin as she signaled for the clan's attention, and there was perhaps something that Tsu'tey should have said then, just in case, but those kinds of words had never been his strength. He settled for a short nod. Jake returned it and then turned to say something quietly to Neytiri. Who managed a smile, at least, and then he closed his eyes and laid his head down on the stone.

The rest of the clan had already linked their queues into the Tree of Souls through the roots that ran just above the ground, and Tsu'tey could only watch as Mo'at began to speak. As the clan leader, it was not his place to join in with the prayers and songs. His duty was to keep watch over the clan while they made their pleas to Eywa. But Jake was his friend, and he very much wanted to participate.

Mo'at's words as she entreated Eywa to hear their prayers rang out across the clearing, and the clan cried out in response to her pleas as glowing tendrils grew up from the ground, finding purchase in the base of his skull and down his spine. The same glow surrounded the clearing as well, emanating from the roots, and Jake's expression twitched as the tendrils connected. His eyes didn't open again even as the cries grew louder, though, the clan moving in time with their words and raising their arms to the sky. Tsu'tey could see a few Atokirina floating about, glowing in the faint light, and took it as a good sign, but most of his attention was on Jake.

The clan's chanting continued for several iterations, the strands increasing in number with every moment that passed, and then, almost too quickly, Mo'at lowered her arms and called for quiet. All went silent as the previously-glowing tendrils faded into darkness again.

Jake didn't move, his eyes still closed, and Neytiri kissed his eyelids and then moved to crouch over his still-motionless Dreamwalker body. "Jake? My Jake?"

* * *

_Author's Note: Snicker. That was kind of evil. But it was a good breakpoint._


	29. Changes

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. This chapter was supposed to come out right after the last one (to make up for the evilness of the last ending), but the plague (flu/allergies) struck and I've only been writing in short spurts lately.  
_

* * *

The clearing held its silence as Mo'at moved to lean over Jake's Dreamwalker body as well, and the Atokirina that had appeared to be floating aimlessly sank down to land on his chest and head. There were more of them than Tsu'tey had realized, and their movement now had to be a good sign, but he still wasn't moving.

He heard a gasp, and then Neytiri cried out. Happily, fortunately, and he felt a grin stretching across his face as the Atokirina scattered again. It—he felt his smile fall as Toruk Makto pushed himself into a sitting position. But, of course it was Toruk Makto that moved, Toruk Makto was Jake was in his Dreamwalker body. Moving him there had been the whole point of the ceremony…if the transfer had _not_ worked, then there would be difficulty.

Tsu'tey's fingers curled into his palm as his eyes moved back to the other form, though, just as a few more strands from the roots of the Tree of Souls grew up over it. Continuing to cover the still, pale Sky Person form that he'd become accustomed to calling friend.

It was a foolish thought. He knew that it was foolish thought. But as the strands continued to climb, he couldn't help the unsettling feeling that Toruk Makto had just killed Jake.

Toruk Makto tried to get to his feet, only to waver alarmingly, and Tsu'tey took an automatic step forward even as Neytiri slipped under one arm.

"You, sit," Tsu'tey's mother directed, appearing beside the two. /The muscles in this body are weak from sitting unused. You must sit for a time. Eat something./

For a moment Tsu'tey thought he was going to object, but then Neytiri pressed down on his shoulder, and with a muttered, "Yes, ma'am," he sank back to the ground. And then tilted his head back, his eye roll clearly directed at Tsu'tey. Tsu'tey couldn't even bring himself to smile in response, though. Not with Jake just _lying_ there. Toruk Makto obviously noticed, as his grin faded to a look of puzzlement, but then the rest of the clan began making their way up to him and he turned his attention to them.

Tsu'tey slipped back further into the shadows as Toruk Makto's attention focused fully on the rest of the clan. He didn't want to be here right now, and none of the sentries would object to being relieved early. They would wish to see the results of the transfer as well.

Time passed, but the night remained quiet…although his mother would have objected if she'd known, he remained at the post he'd commandeered for himself until the sentry for the second third of the night came to relieve him. Again, he was being foolish. And also again, he _knew_ that he was being foolish. But he could not stop the feeling. He found himself walking back towards the clearing, skirting the edges of the now-sleeping clan, to stare again at the familiar form now more than half-covered with roots.

"It's freaking creepy."

Tsu'tey started at that, one hand falling to the hilt of his knife before he recognized the voice. He hadn't seen Toruk Makto there, seated on the ground between two high roots, although he certainly should have. It was good that nothing had approached while he had been on watch; if his concentration was so fragmented, he would not have noticed a threat until it was upon him.

"You do not sleep?" he asked after a few moments of silence. Mostly because Toruk Makto was obviously not going to elaborate, and it would have been ruder than even he could justify to stand there and say nothing.

"Nah, it feels like I've been sleeping way too much lately. Besides, it was hard enough getting myself over here. If I try walking back over there without resting for a few minutes, I'll probably fall on my ass and wake everyone up. I'm lucky I made it this far; my legs feel like spaghetti."

"What is spag-getti?" Was there ever an end to bizarre Sky Person words?

"Well, spaghetti is pasta, technically, but all I meant was that my legs feel very weak. Well, they _are_ very weak, I guess, and it's not that I'm complaining since at least I have functional legs again, but it's still a little annoying." There was a rustling sound as he shifted around but did not stand. "So what are you still doing up?"

"I was on watch." No point in bringing up the fact that he had assigned himself the watch, it had been on the other side of the clearing, and he had deliberately detoured past here on his way to the rest of clan. "What do you mean 'freaking creepy'?" It was easier to speak to Toruk Makto if he didn't look at him, he noticed…his voice still sounded like Jake's, at least. And with him sitting on the ground, his voice was coming from approximately the correct location as well. Tsu'tey didn't dare crouch down as well; he wasn't sure that the muscles in his leg would allow him to stand again.

Silence held for several moments, long enough that Tsu'tey wasn't sure if he was going to answer at all, and then, "I look like Tommy."

Tsu'tey wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to that—if there _was_ a response to that—so he said nothing.

"I watched him burn," he continued after a minute. "The real him, I mean. I couldn't look away, not even when those jackasses in suits were trying to convince me to take his place so they wouldn't lose their precious investment. Bastards couldn't even wait until it was over. It's not as if watching changed anything, but…. I don't know. I wasn't there to stop it when it happened, but I could at least give him that much." A half-bark that was probably supposed to be laughter. "This, however, is just dumb because I'm right here and I know that's me and not him. Hell, if nothing else, the tats make that pretty damn clear; you would not believe the lecture I got on improper needle sanitation and the lack of regulation for tattoo inks after I got the first one. But for some reason I can't look away now either."

"Burn?" Tsu'tey asked after a minute. "I thought your brother was shot." Possibly—probably—an inappropriate question at this point in time, but he did not know what to say to the rest of the things Toruk Makto had just said To what _Jake_ had just said. He must make himself think that way now. As wrong as it felt.

"He was. I mean, that's how he died. But humans…there's no place left on Earth to bury the dead. At least not in the place that we were from. So when we die, we're—well, they're, now, I guess—cremated. Uh, cremated…it means that our—their—bodies are burned to nothing. A cheap cardboard box and a red button and then all you see are the flames." This time the bark was definitely _not_ laughter. "At least it's fast. I guess that's something. Maybe."

That was at least as horrible as anything else that Tsu'tey had learned about Sky People, but he still could think of nothing useful to say. "You are not on that planet anymore, and his body—your body—will not go to Eywa any faster if you sit here staring than if you rest," he finally managed.

"I can't. Like I said, I know that it's stupid, but…I just have to stay." More silence, and then, "Oh. Right."

Tsu'tey frowned and glanced down at the complete non-sequiter, wished that he hadn't when it was not the person—the form—that he expected there, and then snarled as his tail was yanked. Not nearly as hard as it could have been, especially given that the one doing the yanking was no longer a half-sized Sky Person, but it was the principle of the thing. "Do _not_ do that again. I have told you this before; I will not do so again." If Toruk Makto had not been sitting down, Tsu'tey would have dealt with it then.

"Yeah, well, you dropped me, so it serves you right."

"Would you have preferred that I carry you? The ikran do not land in this part of the clearing."

There was silence for a minute, and then, "Okay, I guess I see your point. But you could have warned me, you know."

"I would not have had as much fun with that."

"Thanks. So much. You know, your mother is going to yell at you if you don't get some sleep."

"My mother is going to yell at you if you don't get some sleep as well. And you are far more frightened of her than I am." That didn't get any response aside from a scoff, so he counted himself the victor in the exchange.

"Hey, are you okay?" Toruk Makto asked after a moment. "Things were a little fuzzy at first, but that was a _weird_ look you were giving me after the transfer."

Tsu'tey shrugged and then lied. "It is not usual for the Atokirina to cluster like that."

"Ah. I don't know why, but the little bloodsuckers just like me for some reason."

"_Atokirina_," Tsu'tey corrected sharply. "Not…bloodsuckers. They are sacred."

"Right. Sorry."

"Although I don't know why they like you either."

That got a quiet laugh—a real laugh—and then there was silence again.

After some more time had passed, Tsu'tey shook his head and dragged his eyes away from the Sky Person on the ground. "I must sleep now. You should too."

"Soon. When it's done."

* * *

Despite the fact that he fell asleep almost as soon as he laid down, morning still came too quickly, and Tsu'tey had a strong suspicion that his mother knew that he hadn't slept a great deal. But since she said nothing directly, instead spending her time checking Toruk Makto and those who had taken minor injuries on their journey, neither did he. He was more worried about the stiffness in his legs and how well he would be able to balance on Denan, anyway…the clan would begin the trip back to Hometree today, and while he was flying with the ikran makto he would not have the same opportunity to stop for rests as he had been able to yesterday. Of course, he would not have to hold a Sky Person on Denan's neck today either—he never would again—but it would still not be an easy flight. He was having trouble convincing himself that it would even be a _possible_ flight.

He accepted a bowl of breakfast with an absent nod of thanks, eyes skimming over the clan members seated around him as he ate. All of them were obviously ready to be leaving, although none seemed particularly worried or rushed. The trip had been a success after all. And the body that had lay between the roots of the Tree of Souls was covered, now. Toruk Makto was sitting with Neytiri, the two of them speaking quietly, and in the light of day, Tsu'tey had no interest in asking if he had sat and watched until the body disappeared entirely or not.

/You will be able to fly today?/ his mother asked, appearing beside him, and he nodded.

/I will be fine./ He would manage somehow.

She shook her head and that, and he grinned slightly. He had never considered it before, but using 'I'm fine' to mean 'I'm not dead' was actually a useful application.

"Tsu'tey."

Tsu'tey twisted to scowl up at the person who had slapped his arm.

Toruk Makto completely ignored his expression. "Do you want a ride?"

Toruk Makto was Jake. Tsu'tey knew this. "What?"

He gestured back towards where Toruk sat, his deep red frame looming over the ikran around him. "I know we're supposed to be heading out soon, and I wanted to know if you wanted to ride with me. Neytiri's going to ride along on pa'li with Mo'at—I think she's way more freaked about what happened yesterday than she wants to admit—but he's fine with two. And it's a little easier than riding an ikran, at least if we're not going into battle. No offense, but you're kind of limping. More than I am, and I'm the one in the body with no muscle mass left to speak of."

"_No_." He was not a child to be given rides.

"Are you sure?" Toruk Makto shrugged. "Figure I owe you given how many times you've gotten stuck hauling me around lately."

Tsu'tey paused, mid-snarl. He was not a child, however an exchange…that was perfectly acceptable. And he could not say that he did not wish to ride Toruk. "Denan will not be pleased."

"Yeah, well, she already hates my guts. We've pretty well proven that. But I'm pretty sure that she won't try anything while we're on his back either."

Tsu'tey's tail twitched slightly. He had carried Jake many times. Including yesterday, which was why his good leg was so stiff in the first place. It was a true exchange.

Toruk Makto grinned, apparently reading his decision in his face. It probably hadn't been difficult. "Cool."


	30. In Transit

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Real life is killing me right now (hence this being a shorter chapter than usual), but this hasn't been abandoned and I am writing/editing as I find the time._

* * *

"Are you ready to go?"

Tsu'tey nodded, accepting the hand offered to help him swing into place. _Behind_ Toruk Makto because, as he had said and Tsu'tey had firmly agreed, Tsu'tey could hold on just fine by himself. They would be the last to leave the Tree of Souls, but that was as it should be. It was the place of a clan leader to see that all others were safely moving and nothing had been left behind before taking flight himself. Of course, he would then normally take his place at the head of the ikran makto, or at the very least the ground formation, but since Toruk had no place among them, Tsu'tey and Toruk Makto would simply pace the rest.

"Hang on," Toruk Makto warned, and then with a force that no ikran could match, Toruk sprang upwards and they were airborne.

Tsu'tey heard Denan shriek below them, and then she shot upwards, passing them in a blur. She had _not_ been happy when he'd told her what he was going to do, and he'd had to press upon her very firmly the need to avoid doing anything that really would cause Toruk to eat her. However, it was another ikran that swept low over Toruk's back with an echoing scream.

"I know, I know," Toruk Makto said with a wave in his general direction. "I'll fly with you later. I promise."

"What is his name?" Tsu'tey asked. He was a little surprised to realize that he didn't know. The question was normally asked shortly after Iknimaya, and presumably _someone_ had asked, but at the time he'd been too annoyed that the Dreamwalker had passed to pay any attention.

"Banshee."

Tsu'tey frowned. "I thought that that was what the Sky People call all ikran."

"It is."

"Then how can it also be his name?"

Toruk Makto shrugged. "Because I'm horrible at naming things? Seriously, the stuffed animals I had when I was a kid were named Puppy, Kitty, and Teddy. Well, and Edgar, but Tommy named that one so I don't think it counts. I was going to call him Ikran, but Neytiri said that that was stupid."

Tsu'tey bit back his immediately words of agreement. Besides, naming the creature Banshee wasn't much better, but that name had been chosen long enough ago that there was no point in arguing about it now. And they did call Toruk Toruk, after all. Even if that was because he was, like all of his species, a loner who permitted no others to come within his territory except during mating season.

"We're going to need more altitude if we're going to catch up with the others."

Tsu'tey took that comment for the warning that it was, bracing himself as Toruk swept upwards again. The rest of the clan were easily visible in the distance, and he wasn't surprised when not long after Toruk traded the altitude that he'd gained for speed and swept downward towards them.

There was a shift in formation among the ikran makto as Toruk's shadow swept over them, and Tsu'tey couldn't blame them. It would have been difficult even for him to hold himself steady in the face of such a thing, and even if the riders managed to maintain their composure, no ikran could feel peace when a predator was flying immediately overhead. Tsu'tey still had no idea how any of them slept when he rested in the quarry with them.

"We better get a little bit ahead of them or those poor ikran are going to have heart failure," Toruk Makto muttered, echoing Tsu'tey's thoughts.

Toruk swept forward almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, regaining some height as he did so, and Tsu'tey glanced back to find many—most—of the clan within visible range watching them. "Have you thought about what you are going to say to them?"

"What?"

"Have you thought about what you're going to say to the clan?"

"And I say again, what?"

Tsu'tey's first inclination was to call him an idiot, but he bit back the words. "It was understood that you were tired yesterday, that you would need some time to rest from the transfer, and while we are traveling all have other concerns, but you will be expected to say some words to the clan as a group when we arrive back at Hometree."

"What words?"

It was inappropriate to call Toruk Makto a moron. Even when he was behaving like one. "That is what I was asking you."

"I don't know." He twisted to look back at Tsu'tey again, ears twitching. "I'm not very good at the whole speech thing."

"You made speeches when calling the clans to battle." Good ones, or at least several variations on a single good one, which Tsu'tey still found a irritating. Or at least intimidating, which irritated him.

"That was different! I mean, I was cribbing like mad from every alien-invasion save-the-world vid I've ever seen and mashing it together with a few bits from random pre-battle speeches!" He shook his head. "But now is the part of the vid where the characters are all swallowing each other's tongues, and if I was still with the Marines, the best-case scenario would've been a grunt and 'You've got two days R and R before you're due back on base.' I don't know have the first idea about what I'm supposed to say now!"

"Swallowing each other's tongues?" Tsu'tey grimaced. He had no idea what that actually meant—even for Sky People, he didn't think it was literal—but it sounded disgusting.

Toruk Makto shook his head. "Come on, Tsu'tey, give me a hint here. I mean, I assume I shouldn't insult their grandmothers, but given that that's about the only thing I can _do_ consistently in Na'vi…."

"I will interpret if you would like, but enough of the clan understands the Sky People's language that the words must be yours."

Toruk Makto muttered something that didn't sound particularly polite.

"Besides, you would not want my words," he admitted after a moment. "I did not speak so well myself when I first arrived."

"Oh, that's comforting."

The sarcasm in his voice sounded so much like Jake, even if the visual didn't match, that Tsu'tey's lips twitched. "It would be appropriate to thank those who fought in the battle as well as those who helped in other ways," he offered. "And to congratulate all on the outcome."

"Okay." He nodded slightly. "Okay, I can do that."

"After that, perhaps words of congratulations about the new Hometree." That would be less of a concern for Toruk Makto than for the clan leader, of course, but it would be polite for him to acknowledge the effort that had gone into the search and the work done thus far. "I don't think more will be expected, but you might ask Neytiri or Mo'at when we stop for the night. They will know better."

"Well, I don't really have a lot of experience with what a Hometree is supposed to look like, but I'll give it a shot. Thanks. I owe you one."

Tsu'tey shook his head. Preventing Toruk Makto from humiliating himself was…appropriate.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Toruk Makto asked after a minute.

"The pain in my leg is manageable." Especially since it was flat against Toruk at the moment, with no added stress on the joints.

"That's not what I meant. You're acting kind of weirdly formal. You should have called me an idiot at least _once_ about the whole speech thing."

Tsu'tey shrugged slightly. "It is nothing."

"Okay…." He turned back around, staring out into the distance for several minutes before looking back over his shoulder again. "Hey, is everyone down there looking all right? I mean, formation-wise and everything."

Tsu'tey twisted to look at the formation behind them. He didn't really need to since the ikran makto knew their places well, but it was an automatic response to the question. "They are fine."

"Then do you want to have some fun? Toruk's getting bored, and I think I need something to take my mind off this speech thing for a little bit. Plus I don't think we're far enough away for all of the ikran's comfort."

Tsu'tey bared his teeth in a quick grin. Flying at all on Toruk was still more than most got to do, but he wasn't about to object to any aerial stunts that Toruk Makto wanted to try.

"Hang on."

* * *

Tsu'tey signaled to Denan to sweep upwards, shifting past the left edge of the formation towards Toruk and capturing Toruk Makto's attention. Toruk furled his wings and did a barrel roll, putting him just under Denan.

"What's up?" Toruk Makto called.

"That is Hometree," Tsu'tey called back, indicating the tallest of the trees in the distance. "The ikran and Toruk will have to land in a dry lakebed a short distance away."

"Got it. We'll follow you in."

Tsu'tey waved in acknowledgement. If his leg had felt better, he'd have mimicked Toruk's action and allowed Denan to spiral away from Toruk, but it was paining him to the point where he wasn't entirely sure that he could maintain his balance so he simply asked her to move sideways while Toruk swept upwards again, giving him a clear path back to the formation. Even that caused a spasm of pain, though, and for a moment, he regretted declining Toruk Makto's second invitation to fly. But between Denan's upset by his last flight and the fact that a clan leader should be the one to lead the clan home, he had felt that refusing was correct. Besides, while the aerial stunts on Toruk's back had been fun yesterday, it had somehow felt much less…immediate…than the same acrobatics did on Denan. Of course, much of that was probably due to the fact that he was not the one who'd make tsaheylu with Toruk, but it didn't change the fact that Denan was capable of much tighter turns and abrupt directional changes. It was a much more satisfying type of flying.

/_Satisfaction/pleasure/better-than-him_,/ came through the bond, and he patted her neck lightly.

/We will fly together properly again soon,/ he assured her. As soon as his leg stopped paining him.

The ikran makto circled overhead as the main body of the clan reached Hometree proper and then peeled off for the lakebed, and Toruk followed. Tsu'tey wasn't surprised that two of the warriors that he'd assigned to remain behind met them there, and Toruk Makto managed to greet them as well as he had the rest of the clan after the transformation.

The walk back to Hometree was made fairly slowly…Tsu'tey sent most of the ikran makto down the path ahead of him tried to mask the pain in his leg from the rest as best he could, but even with the crutch he could only do so much. And Toruk Makto's steps weren't precisely strong either.

Neytiri met them part way back, and Tsu'tey wasn't surprised that she dragged Toruk Makto off somewhere almost immediately. Probably for a tour, which would be good since he would have to have something to comment on for the speech. Or possibly to use the radio to speak to the scientists at the Sky People's compound, which would also be good. Norm and Max and the others would be worrying.

Wherever they had gone, they reappeared in plenty of time for the night meal, and Tsu'tey signaled him over. "Toruk Makto, you will speak now or after?"

His face dropped into a frown. "Jake."

It was Tsu'tey's turn to frown, and Toruk Makto's face creased.

"My _name_ is _Jake_. Something is going on with you."


	31. Two Yous

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. No, this hasn't been abandoned; it's just taking me awhile to get everything situated how I want. And other plot bunnies keep intruding. It's very annoying sometimes._

* * *

"Well, that…could have been worse," Toruk Makto said as he folded his legs under him and sank to the ground beside Neytiri.

Tsu'tey's lips twitched as he settled in as well, and he took a bite rather than responding. 'Could have been worse' was an accurate enough assessment. Toruk Makto had been right about his speech-making—or at least non-battle-related speech-making—abilities; while he had managed to refrain from insulting anyone's grandmother, he'd also been even more awkward than Tsu'tey had been. Which had made Tsu'tey feel less discouraged about his own first speech to the clan, despite the fact that he knew perfectly well that it shouldn't. And regardless of how awkward Toruk Makto's words had been even through Tsu'tey's translation, they had been honest enough, and Tsu'tey didn't doubt that the clan would accept them for their meaning rather than their presentation.

He shook his head and took another bite. He didn't plan to admit his feelings to anyone, although he didn't doubt that his mother and probably his uncle as well suspected, but if he had, Jake would have understood. In fact, he'd probably have laughed and made a joke about how he was glad to be of use. And while Tsu'tey knew that Toruk Makto _should_ respond in the same way….

A moment later Neytiri said something quietly that made Toruk Makto smile, and Tsu'tey once again saw an echo of his friend that made him focus more intently on his own food. Mo'at's request that Toruk Makto speak had neatly interrupted Toruk Makto's demand to know what was 'up' with him, but he very much doubted that the question would go forgotten for long, and he still didn't have a good response. He knew he was being ridiculous, but the fact that he knew perfectly well who Toruk Makto was didn't make him feel any more comfortable with the transition.

Fortunately, the others around him, Toruk Makto included, were very hungry after all of the traveling they'd done, and not that he wasn't, but given his desire to avoid a confrontation, he was willing to forgo a second helping in favor of slipping away while the others were still occupied. Visiting the still-immobile wounded was an appropriate thing for a leader to do, especially after having been gone on a journey, and it made a perfectly reasonable excuse for him not to remain with the rest of the clan after the meal.

The severely injured numbered fewer, now, fortunately because most had recovered enough to take their meals with the rest of the clan and not because they'd gone to Eywa, but the ones who remained seemed pleased enough to see him and hear news of the trek and the transition ceremony. And as much as he'd rather have avoided speaking about the ceremony, their questions kept him legitimately occupied until the majority of the clan had dispersed to whatever after-meal tasks they had. When he finally judged the clearing empty enough, he excused himself and started making his way back towards the carving area. His own after-meal tasks included fletching a new set of arrows, and he knew that he'd seen a stack of thin branch lengths that would work well as shafts.

"Tsu'tey!" Toruk Makto made quite possibly the least graceful leap that Tsu'tey had ever seen—to the point where a fall would have shown more poise—off of the first branch of the tree to land in front of him, stumbled, and flailed his arms to regain his balance. And nearly failed; Tsu'tey suspected that it was sheer willpower that kept him on his feet. "Damn it," he muttered as he finally steadied. "I know it's just a matter of rebuilding the muscles, but that is getting _really_ annoying." He shook his head. "Anyway, you're just who I was looking for."

"What do you want?" Tsu'tey asked. It was not the most polite thing to say, perhaps, but it was better than pointing out that he'd never been the most agile when it came to navigating the previous Hometree either. As tempting as it was.

"I need you to come with me and tell Norm that I'm fine so he'll stop worrying."

Presumably he meant for Tsu'tey to go with him to the radio, and Tsu'tey frowned. "Why haven't you told him this yourself?"

"I have. Like ten times. He doesn't believe me. Don't ask me how he thinks he's talking to me if I'm _not_ fine, but…." Toruk Makto rolled his eyes, and one shoulder twitched. "Please? I know Max and Carla talked to your mother for a minute before dinner, but they didn't have time to chat, and Norm knows you better than her or Mo'at or Neytiri anyway. Maybe if you tell him, he'll shut up about it."

Tsu'tey snorted and considered mentioning that Norm might be slightly more likely to believe Toruk Makto if he used something besides the word 'fine' when describing his condition, but in the end he only dipped his head slightly in agreement. It wasn't as though it was an unreasonable request or one that would take a great deal of time, after all. Besides, Tsu'tey had broken several arrows while practicing at the Sky People's place, and as long as he was making new ones for himself, he might as well replace those as well. Doing so required knowing which fletching was preferred.

The turnoff to the radio was only short distance further down the path, and they matched steps—slow steps, granted, but steps—easily enough. "How's your leg?" Toruk Makto asked before Tsu'tey could say anything. "You were looking kind of stiff earlier. Of course, in case you can't tell from the way I'm moving, I still haven't progressed much beyond spaghetti myself so I probably shouldn't be talking, but…."

"My leg is as well as can be expected. My mother was not pleased with the amount of flying that I have been doing, and it seems that she was correct about the results, but even she does not claim that I've done any further damage." Caused himself more pain, yes, and he was sure that she'd taken some satisfaction in pointing that out, but more damage, no. "The cast should be coming off soon."

"That's good."

"Have the healers said how long you will be…spaghetti?"

"A while. I mean, it won't be _this_ bad for too long, but rebuilding real muscle takes time." His tail lashed. "It's not like I need anyone to tell me that, but it doesn't make me like it any more."

Tsu'tey nodded rather than responding, and the two continued down the path in silence. Once or twice it seemed as though Toruk Makto was going to say something, but they reached the radio before he did, and Tsu'tey couldn't claim that he wasn't relived. He still had no desire to revisit the earlier question that had been asked of him, especially since an hour or two of speaking to the wounded hadn't suddenly provided him with a good answer. Or, for that matter, any answer. The hunter on watch at the radio had his attention fully focused on the half-finished carry-case in his lap, not even lifting his head on occasion to check his surroundings, and given his own tension Tsu'tey took more pleasure than he probably should have in startling him back to awareness.

"That was kind of cruel," Toruk Makto said a few minutes later as Tsu'tey finally let the youngster flee the area with a suggestion that he return his crafts to his hammock. "He isn't much more than a kid."

"He will recover." Tsu'tey started to reach for the radio and then realized that Toruk Makto would be able to get it working much faster than he ever could. He lifted himself to perch on one of the railings instead, taking his weight off his leg and leaning his crutch against the nearest support post. "Would you have been so careless on a watch you were standing, even when you were young?"

"Hell, no, my sergeant would have handed my ass to me three times over if I'd even dared to _look_ distracted. But this isn't exactly a border post." He tilted his head and then tapped something out on the buttons attached to the radio quickly.

"In a year or two when he is old enough to stand a border post, he will remember." Tsu'tey flicked his ears. "Here if he both worked and paid attention it would be acceptable," especially since the point of a radio watch was to listen rather than watch for incoming dangers, "but even so close to Hometree there is no excuse for being that unaware."

The radio crackled and came to life before Toruk Makto could speak, although from his expression he hadn't planned to dispute Tsu'tey's words.

"Hello?" a woman's voice asked.

"Hey, Marie, it's Jake again. Could you ask Norm to come to the radio if he has a minute?"

"Sure, I'll call him down." She sounded amused, and it wasn't long before the radio crackled again.

"Jake?"

"Hey, Norm," Toruk Makto looked back at Tsu'tey. "Would you please tell him?"

"Could who tell whom what?" Norm asked.

"This is Tsu'tey," Tsu'tey said. "Toruk Makto wishes me to tell you that he is," he smirked slightly, "fine."

"Yeah, great. He probably wants you to tell me that the sky is green with orange polka dots too. _Is_ he fine?" There was a pause, and then more quietly, "I was there with Grace too, remember?"

Tsu'tey opened his mouth and then shut it again. It was true that Norm had only seen one transfer—one that had failed—and given how weak Jake had been when he'd left the Sky People's compound and that Norm wasn't here to see the results of this one for himself, further joking would be inappropriate. "Toruk Makto is well," he said more seriously. Clumsy and awkward at the moment, but that wasn't what Norm was asking.

"Good." There was a momentary pause, and then, "Uh, Tsu'tey, just to make sure, are you okay?"

He frowned. "Yes." Or at least he was no more injured than he had been the last time that they'd seen each other. "Why?"

"Because I haven't heard you use his title since the battle, and this isn't exactly a formal situation where I'd be expecting it. You haven't taken any knocks to the head that made you forget that Toruk Makto is just Jake, right?"

"Personally, I'm starting to wonder about that one myself," Toruk Makto said before Tsu'tey could say anything. "You never answered me earlier, so I'll ask again. What is going on with you? Because now that I think about it, I can't remember you using my actual name once since the transfer happened."

Awkward silence followed as Tsu'tey bit back a curse that he hadn't managed to avoid the question after all, and then Norm cleared his throat over the radio. "You know I suddenly don't think that I want to be in the middle of this conversation. Thanks for stopping by, Jake. You too, Tsu'tey. Sorry Jake, but I believe him over you when it comes to the medical stuff. Have a good night, and I'll talk to you—hopefully both of you, but definitely whichever survives—later."

Toruk Makto touched something that made the radio go silent and then crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against rail of the structure opposite the one that Tsu'tey was sitting on. "I'm not going to stop bugging you about this until you answer me, you know. And like I told you once before, I grew up with a twin. I can be _really_ annoyingly persistent when the situation calls for it."

Tsu'tey scowled, but he didn't doubt that the statement was genuine.

"Come on, talk to me. What's going on?"

"You aren't…you," Tsu'tey said after a minute, looking away.

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm me," Toruk Makto responded with a frown. "And I think I'd be the one to know."

"You aren't the you that I'm used to, then," Tsu'tey snapped, and then wondered if that had made any sense whatsoever outside of his own mind. He let out his breath slowly. "It is foolish, I know, but this…." He made a vague gesture towards Toruk Makto. "I'm used to…disliking…this you. Or at least I would not have said that we were friends the last time we spoke."

"Well, that's comforting." Toruk Makto seemed more amused than annoyed, at least. "Although I guess I can't argue that you're wrong, at least about how well we were getting along the last time that I was in this body. But we were doing fine back at the compound." He frowned, and his ears went back slightly. "Or I thought we were, anyway."

"Yes, of course." It was still strange to think that he could willingly call a broken Sky Person brother, but that had been Jake. "But that you to went to Eywa at the same time that this you returned."

"This me, that me…it's like a split personality disorder without the split personality," Toruk Makto said with a bark that was probably supposed to have been laughter. "Tsu'tey, whatever body it is, I'm still _me_. Exact same person, just taller and blue-er and with functioning legs. And, you know, the ears and the tail, and…." He waved a hand absently.

Tsu'tey shrugged and flicked his ears, and after a moment, Toruk Makto sighed.

"I guess I can see how it might be weird, though. I mean, it's a way smaller difference, but it is a little odd for me to be able to look you in the eye without looking up. For the others it's not such a change—even Neytiri I only saw occasionally when she was able to visit—but…."

"I do know that that you is this you now," and that Toruk Makto hadn't really killed Jake, whatever tricks his mind was attempting to play on him, Tsu'tey said after a minute. "And I will get used to this you eventually, I'm sure, but it is strange. I am not used to people changing bodies."

"Yeah, well, you and me both," Toruk Makto said with a snort. "And like I said, I guess I can understand where you're coming from. But can you at least manage to use my _name_ when you're talking to me? Because the whole title thing is kind of weird." He paused, frowning. "Unless I'm supposed to be using yours when I'm speaking to you? I didn't talk to Eytukan a whole lot, and the few times he had questions for me I generally just called him 'sir.' Neytiri never yelled at me for it so I figured it was okay, but I don't really know what's right."

'Sir' being a polite way to address an older male, Tsu'tey remembered, although who knew if Eytukan had ever known that, and he shook his head. "In formal situations, using a title is appropriate, otherwise it is not necessary." Particularly given Toruk Makto's own status. "Ask Neytiri, and she will explain better." He paused. "And I will try to remember to use your name." Even if it still felt like it belonged to the broken Sky Person they'd left back encased in the roots of the Tree of Souls.

The hunter who had been on watch returned before either of them could say anything else, this time without any craft projects, and Toruk Makto—Jake—pushed himself away from the railing. "We'd better get back to Hometree before someone notices we're missing and starts worrying that one of us tripped and fell in a hole or something."

Tsu'tey nodded and lowered himself back to the ground, tucking his crutch back under his arm. The young hunter seemed glad to see them go as they turned back onto the path, and he made a mental note to stop by the next time that that youngster had a watch to make sure that the lesson had stuck. The ability to concentrate was good; doing it to the point of distraction was not. "What fletching do you prefer on arrows?" he asked as they made their way down the path.

Toruk Makto—Jake—turned towards him. "What?"

"What arrow fletching do you prefer?" Tsu'tey repeated. "I damaged several of your arrows in your…range…and as I need to make myself a new set anyway, I was going to replace them at the same time."

One shoulder twitched. "The fletching kind? Whatever Neytiri uses, I guess. I just tried to make my arrows the way she showed me."

"That much has not changed, whatever the body," Tsu'tey said after a moment.

He tilted his head in question.

To Toruk Makto Tsu'tey would not say such a thing, but to Jake he would, so…. He twitched his ears. "You are still a moron."


	32. Different Targets

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Real life is being annoying, but I'm writing when I can._

* * *

The familiar rhythm of a teaching song confirmed that Tsu'tey was headed in the right direction, and when he got close enough to observe the listeners, he found his target and circled around the children taking care to stay out of sight. Despite his best efforts, Jake's ears twitched in his direction as he got close, though, and Tsu'tey wasn't surprised at the lack of surprise on Jake's part as he dropped down beside him. Still keeping his bad leg outstretched to this side, but yesterday the healers had finally cut the cast away and replaced it with a simple brace that made it much easier to move. Even if they were insisting that he continue to use the crutch as well. /How is the lesson?/ he asked quietly.

/I think she lost me with the…./ Jake frowned. "Goats?"

"What is a goat?"

"There were no goats?" Jake glanced at Ninat, who hadn't broken her song, her attention focused on the children as she pointedly ignored them both. "She might have lost me before the goats, then."

Tsu'tey shook his head and tried not to laugh. It wasn't that Jake wasn't trying, he obviously _was_, but he hadn't been lying when he'd claimed poor facility with languages. And the fact that teaching songs continued straight through from beginning to end with no pause for questions—or translations—until that end was reached probably didn't help.

"Was someone at least hunting something?"

He listened for a moment to place the song and then reviewed it in his head quickly. "The singer observes a Palulukan stampeding a herd in the beginning."

"Well, that's kind of close." He shrugged slightly. "Anyway, I figure that as long the small children aren't smacking me in the forehead and calling me a moron on a regular basis, it could be worse. And if I hear something often enough, I'll pick it up."

Tsu'tey did snicker at that. It wasn't that he disbelieved Jake, but he had no trouble imagining Neytiri doing either of those things.

Ninat finally deigned to notice them long enough to give them a disapproving look, and Jake shook his head. "Did you need something, or do you just want to get me yelled at by the teacher?"

"The hunters will be meeting soon. You should be there."

Jake nodded and pushed himself to his feet. Unlike a few of the more unwise in the clan, he didn't offer to help Tsu'tey—he never offered to help Tsu'tey, although he would assist if asked—simply waiting for him to get to his feet on his own before turning and matching his pace back towards the main gathering area. "Are you sure that I should be going to these meetings?" Jake asked as the teaching song faded behind them and the hum of spoken voices became audible ahead.

"You are a hunter." Not that he was doing much hunting at the moment, but then, neither was Tsu'tey. "It is appropriate."

"Yeah, but…." He shrugged awkwardly. "It might be easier on you if I wasn't. And it's not like I'm contributing much. I mean, there are a limited number of ways that military tactics can be adapted to hunting yerik—or anything else—and most of what I know about hunting I picked up from Neytiri. Or from watching you and mimicking whatever you did."

"And you don't know how annoying that was." Or, rather, how annoying it had been, that someone who'd barely know anything about them could have matched maneuvers that Tsu'tey had spent years perfecting. Although if the teeth-baring grin that Jake was giving him now was any indication, he had known. It figured.

There were still times when he looked at Jake and was surprised to see Toruk Makto standing there, but they were becoming rarer. Mostly because, as he kept insisting, Toruk Makto really _was_ Jake. And he acted like it. He was surprisingly good about not needling Tsu'tey in front of others, but when it was just the two of them, he behaved mostly as he had back at the Sky People's compound.

Tsu'tey shook his head and brought the conversation back to the present. "You aren't the problem. And some of those military tactics have helped with the defenses." Said defenses were probably heavier than they needed to be, certainly stronger than the ones at the old Hometree had been, but given what had happened to Hometree, no one was willing to take any chances. Least of all Tsu'tey.

Jake didn't try to argue, probably because it was the truth, but the fact that it was the truth didn't meant that there hadn't been truth in his words as well. Despite Mo'at's announcement of a full challenge to be held at the next clan gathering—there had been no point in making a secret of it, especially since the current arrangement was so unusual—there were many that simply assumed that Toruk Makto would be taking the leadership when the time came. Which automatically lead to the conclusion that Tsu'tey was only filling in for the interim, and when certain clan members' behaviors reflected that opinion, it was annoying at best.

If anyone asked him to make a decision for the clan, Jake would tell them to ask Tsu'tey. Tsu'tey had heard him more than once. Tsu'tey had a feeling that things wouldn't really settle until that challenge was held, though, and although he hadn't asked, he suspected that Jake knew it as well. He didn't _like_ it, and he wouldn't claim otherwise, but since Jake wasn't fighting him, he could live with it.

The other hunters were sitting in a rough circle in the main area, speaking and joking quietly, and Tsu'tey slipped into an empty space, Jake taking a seat on his far side. No one seemed to be missing, but Tsu'tey cleared his throat and raised his voice to ask anyway. /Is anyone else expected?/

Silence fell almost immediately as conversations were brought to a halt, but all responses to his question were negative, and he nodded slightly. It wasn't really a surprise given that they'd been assembling when he'd gone to find Jake, but it was good that all were prepared. /As you all know, a small yerik herd was observed going down to the river two days ago,/ he began. /Kel'tsi?/

She stood at his gesture, obviously trying to look more at ease than she really was. She was a young scout, young enough that she wouldn't have been going out alone if the clan had not lost so many hunters, but he'd noticed that her observations were generally sound.

/Describe what you saw./

* * *

Watching the others leave and knowing that he couldn't go with them still left Tsu'tey feeling at a loss, but even if he managed to evade his mother, he still could not fly or ride properly and knew it. He would only slow the others down. It still took him a moment to shake off his disappointment, though, and he turned with a scowl and more of a snarl than strictly necessary when Jake slapped his arm. /What?/

If Jake noticed his irritation, he didn't show it. /Target practice? There's not much point in me trying to pick up one of the kids' lessons starting in the middle, and I still need to build up arm…./ He trailed off with a frown. "Muscles?" His frown turned into a grin. "Besides, it'd be a shame for you to forget how to shoot."

Tsu'tey snorted. /Muscles. And I will match you or any other hunter in the clan arrow for arrow any day./

Jake's grin widened, and he pushed himself to his feet, waiting for Tsu'tey to stand as well.

/Did you understand everything that was said in the meeting?/ Tsu'tey asked as they turned towards the small target range that had been set up. Jake was respectful enough not to interrupt the teaching songs with questions, but Tsu'tey suspected that it was more his pride than anything else that kept him from asking questions during meetings and gatherings. Which Tsu'tey could understand, but while Jake would whisper back and forth with Neytiri if she was there, she and Mo'at had been asked to help the weavers decide on appropriate blessings for their patterns today so she hadn't been present. And it wouldn't do clan morale any good if the hunters came back and Jake started asking about goats. Whatever they were.

/I think so,/ Jake said slowly. /You ask her talk males. Not want kill all females./

/Describe the males, and I don't want the clan to kill any females,/ Tsu'tey corrected, although Jake clearly had the gist of it. It was a balancing act in that the clan needed fresh meat but couldn't afford to denude the herds of very many breeding females. Especially given that yerik were relatively delicate creatures when compared to creatures like taliolang angtsik and the fires that had swept the area after the battle had killed many and driven others far from their usual territories. A few young males would be an acceptable compromise.

Jake nodded. /But what are…./ He frowned and then shook his head and switched languges. "Lay-tussu? From what Peyral was saying, I figured that it was some kind of bug, but what's the deal with it ruining hides? She seemed kind of upset about whatever had happened to the sturmbeest. Uh, taliolang, I mean."

It took Tsu'tey a minute to figure out what the actual word Jake was trying to say was, and then he nodded slightly. "Leytxul. They are very small, and they like to burrow into unfinished hides. And if they are not found and removed quickly, they will eat through and ruin them."

"Huh. I don't think I've ever heard of those before."

"You would not have, at least not with the clan. When we find colonies of them, we move them into the deeper forest, and after enough time Hometree becomes be free of them. We haven't started that here, though, and they are hard to see if you are not looking for them...after the last hunt many hides were damaged before anyone remembered that it would be a problem." Those hides had been split apart and used for other things, of course, holes didn't render a hide _completely_ unusable, but it was never good when carelessness resulted in loss. "Taliolang hides are more useful than yerik because of the size, but a hunt for taliolang takes more time and planning even when they are near. And that herd has moved on." Not to mention that they couldn't afford to thin the taliolang herd too far either; they didn't breed nearly as quickly as yerik.

"Ah. That makes sense. Thanks. Leytsul."

The last was muttered under his breath, obviously for his own benefit, although Tsu'tey nodded to confirm the pronunciation. It wasn't perfect, but it was more than close enough to be understandable.

The target range, placed between Hometree and the dry bed where the ikran were nesting although a ways off the path, was deserted when they reached it. It wasn't really a surprise with the hunters on their way out and all but the youngest children with Ninat, and while there were a hundred things that Tsu'tey would still like to improve, it was hardly a high priority and served it's purpose well enough as it was. He unslung his bow and arrows, checking his bow quickly as Jake checked the targets and then returned to the line.

They both shot through their quiver once saying little, collected their arrows and began again, but about halfway through Jake's second round his arrows began to veer off target, and a few shots after that he shook his head and lowered his bow. "This is your fault."

Tsu'tey smirked and let another arrow fly. "How?"

Jake slung his bow onto his back, rolling his shoulders and stretching his arms. "I haven't figured that part out yet, but give me time."

Tsu'tey took another shot, hitting the target exactly where he intended.

"Showoff."

Tsu'tey's smirk turned into a full-blow grin. It served Jake right for teasing him about his shooting abilities. Of course, Tsu'tey would have to be blind to miss the fact that Jake's failing aim was due entirely to the faint tremors that had begun to wrack his arms when he tried to hold tension, but if Jake wasn't admitting that, he wouldn't bring it up. "It is good that you did not hunt today. Of course, it is a yerik herd, so you might have hit _something, _but_..._."

"You're hilarious." Jake let his arms drop to his sides. "I guess I'm going to have to call it for the day. I was hoping that I could make three at least, but the healers will give me hell if I overstress. Again." He shook his head. "Have I mentioned that I really hate the whole rebuilding muscle thing?"

"Not since breakfast." Tsu'tey let the last arrow from his quiver fly before slinging his bow over his shoulder and tucking his crutch back under his arm. "But I should get back as well." He didn't expect the hunters to return until closer to dinner, but there were several others clan members that he should meet with before the day was done. Especially among the weavers since they'd been planning to start several large works today. Mo'at and Neytiri's assistance might be more important, but as the leader he should know about their progress as well.

Jake matched his pace easily enough as they went to retrieve the arrows. His upper body strength might not be coming back with a speed that pleased him, but he could walk much further without issue now. And if he still wasn't as graceful in the trees as most, well, he never had been.

"How's your leg feeling?" Jake asked, continuing past the target to collect his fallen arrows. "I know you just got the cast off yesterday, but did they tell you when you can lose the crutch too?"

"When the brace comes off." Although his mother hadn't looked happy to say it. "And there is still some pain, but the healers say that it is to be expected." His mother and one of the other senior healers had already warned him that it was possible that his leg would _always_ pain him faintly, especially when the weather was changing. It wasn't a pleasant thing to think about, but if a slight ache was the price to pay for regaining full usage, he was willing to pay it. He pulled the arrows that had stuck free of the target.

Jake took the arrows that Tsu'tey handed him with a nod of thanks. "The new ones seemed to work pretty well, by the way. Not that you could tell from my shooting, b—"

Tsu'tey frowned as Jake broke off sharply, staring over his shoulder, but when he turned to see what had startled Jake, he understood the instinct all too well.


	33. A Race

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

_Yay to vacation and time to get some writing done (although now that this is up, I need to get back to other stories that I've been neglecting)._

_"speech" = English_

_/speech/ = Na'vi_

* * *

Male, a part of Tsu'tey's mind noted absently. Young as well, he'd probably only left his parents a season or so ago, and judging by the span of his shoulders and the length of his limbs, he was still a few years from full growth. Not that that was really saying very much when it came to palulukans; half-grown or not, this one's jaws would already be strong enough to rend a person limb from limb with little effort. Normally palulukans of his age had a difficult time of it, roaming the countryside on the borders between territories and often struggling to keep themselves fed since they lacked the size and the fighting prowess to carve out their own hunting territories, but the adult Palulukan that had claimed this territory had died in the battle leaving no one to contest this young one's incursion.

"Uh, Tsu'tey, what are your thoughts on waterfalls?" Jake asked, breaking the silence.

/What?/

"Well, the last time I ran into one of these guys, I had to jump off a waterfall to get away."

Tsu'tey hadn't known that Jake had encountered a palulukan before, but this wasn't the time to get into it. /There are no waterfalls near here./ He realized as soon as the words were out of his mouth that he was using Na'vi at a time when risking a misunderstanding was a very bad idea. Jake seemed to understand, though—he did understand more than he could speak—because he only muttered a curse in response.

The palulukan began to stalk forward, the smoothness of his movements belying his true speed, and Tsu'tey unslung his bow and drew an arrow from his quiver in one motion. Not that he expected it to do any good. Anything short of a shot directly in the eye would bounce right off his hide, and unless this palulukan was unusually deficient, he would have no trouble shutting his eye before the arrow could impact.

"An M60 didn't do a damn thing against one of these guys so I'm thinking that arrows might not be the way to go," Jake said, although when Tsu'tey risked a quick glance, he saw that Jake had an arrow nocked as well.

"If you run, you may be able to get away." He wouldn't, not with his leg still weak, but he could still be a distraction.

"Forget it. I'm not running unless we both are."

There was no hesitation in his voice, but if he remained here it would do neither of them any good. "I cannot keep up."

"Well, then, come up with anot—duck!"

Ducking would have been a very bad idea as the palulukan sprang, landing where the two of them had been standing, but they'd both dived left and he had missed. Barely.

The palulukan's tail swung over his head as Tsu'tey was struggling to get back to his feet, and Jake grabbed his upper arm and yanked him up and out of range. "Come on!"

/This way,/Tsu'tey called, shifting their direction slightly. Whether running was a good idea or not—especially since he'd lost his grip on the crutch when Jake had pulled him up—it was really the only option that they had, but he wouldn't chance leading the palulukan back to Hometree and the rest of the clan. Not that the palulukan wouldn't be able to sense the rest of the clan, but leading him on a tangent deeper into the forest would give the clan at least temporary safety. With the exception of him and Jake.

Jake didn't comment, running alongside Tsu'tey, but the palulukan had rolled back to his feet and was right behind them.

Fortunately the palulukan's age and inexperience worked against him as Tsu'tey and Jake dodged among tree trunks and underbrush, following similar but not exactly the same paths. An older animal would have known to choose one of them and run him to ground, but this one couldn't seem to decide between them, and there were several times when Tsu'tey fully expected to feel the palulukan's teeth sinking into his back only to hear him snarl and leap sideways as he switched his choice of target to Jake.

Tsu'tey wasn't sure if the fact that Jake was breaking practically every stick in his path was deliberate—even with a limp, Tsu'tey was running much more quietly—but the shouts to distract the palulukan were definitely intentional, and Tsu'tey tried to return the favor by calling out when the creature got too close to Jake as well. Not that he particularly enjoyed hearing the 'thump' behind him when the palulukan's attention returned to him, but he wouldn't see Jake eaten, either.

Unfortunately, it was obvious that there was only so long that the two of them would be able to keep up the chase. If they'd been uninjured it would still have been an uneven race since a palulukan was stronger than any Na'vi, but as it was, between his injured leg and Jake's still-weak muscles, it was not a real race at all. One of them was bound to falter very soon, and when he did, the Palulukan would be on him no matter what the other did. "We need to climb!" Tsu'tey yelled while he still had the breath.

"Can't these things climb?"

Yes, and quickly, which was why he wished that he had a better idea, but together the two of them still weighed much less than even a half-grown palulukan, and they should be able to get high enough that it couldn't follow. "That one," he called, gesturing forward at a gnarled trunk that was vaguely between the two of them and not far ahead.

"Got it!" Jake yelled. "I'm going to double back!"

He didn't have much of a choice, Tsu'tey realized, since the Palulukan was almost on top of him and hadn't wavered in his choice of target despite Tsu'tey's shouting, but there was nothing that Tsu'tey could do to help, and he leapt for the trunk as soon as the tree was within range. He'd made it to the first branch as Jake spun on the palulukan, diving back under him as he sprang. The palulukan skidded hard in the dirt as his prey disappeared, losing precious moments as he tried to recover, and Jake was already scrambling up the tree as the creature rolled back to his feet. "Hurry," Tsu'tey yelled before taking his own advice and continuing his flight upwards as well.

There was another snarl, and Tsu'tey pulled himself around a branch and halted for a moment, glancing down. And realized a slight problem with his plan. At full speed, he climbed trees in the same way that every young Na'vi did, grabbing a limb in his hands and flinging himself upwards inverted, grabbing the next with his feet and swinging himself around and upwards to catch the next in his hands, and so on. Jake didn't climb like that, though, he climbed more like...well, a palulukan was the first thing that came to mind. He moved in upward leaps rather than swings, gathering his legs under him each time. He could cover greater distances in one jump like that than Tsu'tey could manage, and unlike Tsu'tey's method it didn't take much momentum for him to reach full speed, but it did take him a moment to prepare for each upward jump, and it was time that he didn't have with the palulukan almost on top of him.

Tsu'tey had slung his bow onto his back with his quiver automatically when they'd taken off running, and without thinking he pulled it free and began to fire down at the palulukan. Not that he expected the arrows to do any damage—he wasn't even taking the time to aim beyond making sure that they wouldn't hit Jake—but given how young the creature was, they might be enough of a distraction to let Jake get out of range.

It seemed to work as the palulukan paused in his upward attack to snap at the arrows bouncing off his head and hide, and Jake gasped as he pulled finally himself on level with Tsu'tey. "Thanks. But come on, we'd better keep going."

True enough, and Tsu'tey returned his bow to his back and began to climb again, picking up speed as he went. And trying to hold back hisses of pain as he did so. The rest had given him a few moments to catch his breath, but now that he had done so, he was also feeling the spikes of pain that shot up his injured leg each time he got a foot grip. It was better than feeling teeth sinking into his chest, though, and he made himself continue on at the same pace.

A snarl below them indicated that the palulukan was in pursuit again, but the tree began to sway the higher they climbed, and eventually Tsu'tey had to slow and shift his position much nearer to the trunk. Jake had already moved there, and a short time after Tsu'tey changed techniques, the creature's snarls became more plaintive and it was obvious from the volume that he was beginning to fall back.

Tsu'tey and Jake both had to slow slightly as well, checking their grips more carefully, but Tsu'tey wasn't surprised to hear a sharp 'crack' and an accompanying yelp from below them as the palulukan finally trusted his weight to a limb that couldn't handle it. He recovered easily enough, an annoyed snarl marking his new location—there were more than enough branches to keep it from falling far—but the experience obviously shook him, and Tsu'tey risked a glance downward to see him huddled on a branch near the trunk. The palulukan must have seen his glance because he snarled again, but he didn't resume his climb.

"I guess we're high enough," Jake said, shifting to stand on a branch near the one Tsu'tey was on, keeping one hand on the trunk as he looked downwards.

"Maybe."

"What do you mean?"

"The branches might not be able to support him here, but if he climbs the trunk, he could still reach us."

"Damn."

Tsu'tey kept his eyes on the palulukan. "He might not." In fact, given the scare the palulukan had just received, he suspected that 'not' was the likely outcome. Still, he had heard stories of palulukan treeing prey and then using their weight on the trunk to bend the tree down so they could get to it. The odds of a young animal knowing such a trick was low, and the odds of it working in a tree of this size were even lower, but he couldn't rule out the possibility. "Let's just hope that he gets bored quickly and goes away."

Jake's eyes widened slightly. "Crap, you're right. If he wants to, he could stay where he is and keep us treed all day."

"Or longer." It was another trick that Tsu'tey had heard of adult palulukan using, starving their prey out, but again, he doubted that one so young would know it. Or have the patience to use it. There were other trees that the two of them could leap to from here if they needed to make an aerial escape, but if the palulukan wanted, he could return to the ground and continue to trail them easily enough, and Tsu'tey still wasn't willing to risk leading him to Hometree. Better that they waited him out.

* * *

"I'm not seeing anything," Jake called, and Tsu'tey nodded. He'd shot several arrows from his side of the tree with no response as well.

At first, when the palulukan had climbed back down the trunk, Tsu'tey had felt relieved, but unfortunately it had gone no farther than the dirt at the base of the tree. And despite their hope that he would at least nod off, his head had kept coming up with interest each time it had looked like one of them might start downwards.

When the light had begun to fade, though, the palulukan had snarled up at them and finally disappeared into the forest…by common consent they'd given him some time to get well out of range before testing the theory that he was really gone with arrow fire, but so far things looked promising. The fact that he hadn't reappeared was no _guarantee_ that he wasn't waiting for them, of course, but given that he had snapped at arrows before, Tsu'tey took it as a good sign. "Wait here," he said after a moment more of observation.

"No chance," Jake replied, scrambling back around the trunk to join him. "If it turns out that it's still down there, I've got a better chance than you of being able to get out of its way."

"But I climb faster." Jake opened his mouth to respond, and Tsu'tey's eyes narrowed. "Stay in the tree."

Judging by the clench of his jaw, Jake wasn't at all happy with the command, but he did nod fractionally, and after a moment Tsu'tey began to make his way down the trunk.

He slowed his pace as he approached the lowest part of the trunk, the part where a leaping palulukan would be able to grab him and pull him down before he could reverse direction, but no palulukan sprang out of the brush at him, and after a few more moments of observation, he lowered himself to the forest floor. There was still no sign of the creature except for the wallow it had created at the tree base, though, and after a slow walk around the trunk, he signaled for to Jake to join him.

Jake must have come at least part way down the trunk as well because he was beside Tsu'tey almost immediately. "Well, so far so good, I guess."

Tsu'tey shot him a glare, but since Jake had—technically, at least—followed his order to stay in the tree he didn't actually have cause to say anything. "We need to get back to the clan and warn the others," he said instead. "Everyone should be on watch, and those on the border will need to be especially careful." Not that they wouldn't be already, he realized, someone would have gone looking when both he and Jake had missed the meal and the return of the hunters, and only a blind man could miss the tracks of a palulukan and the signs of a scuffle by the archery targets. He winced. "They will be worried." It was not something than an Olo'eyktan should inflict on his clan, especially since he'd only returned to them a short time ago.

"Yeah, well, at least it was us who got jumped and not some little kid."

It was a good point, Tsu'tey realized. A better one than he cared to think about, really, because if the palulukan had stumbled across Ninat and the children…. Tsu'tey shook his head. Ninat would have fought, but she would not have won, and not only would they have lost yet another adult clan member, there was no way to know if all of the children would have escaped or not.

"Does that happen a lot?" Jake asked after a minute. "Thanators—palulukans—coming so close to Hometree?"

Tsu'tey shook his head again, this time with purpose. "Palulukans take the easiest targets. The two of us—or any two—would not be a match for one, but there are many stories of groups of hunters being able to hold one off, and after a few failures they do not return."

"But because it's a new Hometree, this one just didn't know to keep away?"

"That, or because he is young and new to this territory as well. He has not learned that we are not the easiest prey, despite our size."

"Hm."

Tsu'tey took one last look around and then turned towards Hometree. And winced because he wasn't sure how much distance they had covered in their flight, but he already knew that it was farther than he wanted to walk unaided. Sitting still in the tree had been one thing, but….

"No offense, but I think we'd better find you a walking stick or something before we start hiking," Jake said at almost the same time. "I kind of doubt that running around the forest the day after you got your cast off was good for your leg. I mean, my legs feel sore enough, and neither of them was broken."

It wasn't a bad suggestion, as little as Tsu'tey liked hearing it, and it didn't take them long to find an appropriately stout fallen branch and start the walk back. Both of them remained alert as they moved, but there was no sign of the palulukan except for the tracks that it had left on the way out. After they'd covered some distance in silence, he glanced over at Jake. "When did you meet a palulukan before? I did not hear of this." If it had happened during training, he would have thought that Neytiri would have mentioned it, but if she had not wanted to worry her parents, it was possible that she had simply neglected to bring it up.

"It was right after I got here, before I met you guys. Just before, actually, that's how I got separated from Norm and Trudy and Grace and ran into Neytiri in the first place."

Tsu'tey tilted his head, and he shrugged.

"My first day out with the Avatar team, I was poking around a few yards from where Norm and the doc were collecting samples. I probably shouldn't have been, but it was the first time in my life I'd ever seen so many things _growing_. I mean, Tommy dragged me to these botanical gardens back on Earth once, but even that didn't come close to comparing." He shook his head. "I was messing around with a helicordian—the spiral plants that suck themselves back down when you touch them, I'm not sure what they're really called—and this titanothere suddenly rears up in front of me and starts displaying."

"The plants are loreyu," Tsu'tey supplied, matching the Sky Person term with the animal first. "Angtsik will eat them when they can, although they rarely get more than a bite."

"Loreyu," Jake repeated, and Tsu'tey nodded to confirm his pronunciation. "Anyway, after he fanned his crest and everything, Grace said hold my ground and don't shoot. I thought she'd lost her mind, but she was the doc, and she was right because I yelled at it after it finished, and it turned around and ran off. Except then _I_ turned around and one of them—a palulukan—was right behind me, and…." He grinned. "When I asked, Grace said 'run' so I did."

"And you jumped off a waterfall to get away?" He didn't doubt that Jake was brave enough to do something like that, but he knew the area that the scientists had been surveying, and the only waterfall was some distance away. He wouldn't have expected that Jake would have been fast or strong enough to get to it back then, especially given that it was a palulukan chasing him. Then again, the palulukan had probably given him speed.

"Well, the waterfall came after it had snapped my gun in half and ripped my pack off my back, and if you want to get technical, I fell off the top rather than jumped, but yeah, that's the general idea." Jake shrugged again and then nodded. "What about you, have you ever run into one of these guys on your own?"

"I have eyes and sense."

"You know, it's not really fair to call me a moron without actually calling me a moron. It makes it much harder to keep count of the number of times that I need to throw something at you in revenge."

Tsu'tey snickered.

"That's okay; you're going to be in way more trouble with the docs than I am when we get back," Jake said after a minute, shooting a smirk in his direction. "After all, all I've done is overstress healing muscles a little. You've got that broken leg and not a crutch in sight…."

He made a clicking sound with his tongue, and Tsu'tey hissed and picked up his pace. Fractionally. Because even with the improvised walking stick in place of his crutch, his leg still ached, and he knew perfectly well that Jake was right about what the healers, especially his mother, were going to say. "It's your fault that I lost the crutch," he pointed out.

Jake flashed a tooth-baring grin and kept pace easily. "Yeah, good luck with that, brother. You've got to know as well as I do how excuses like that go ov—"

He fell silent immediately at Tsu'tey's sharp gesture, pulling his bow down into his hand in an echo of Tsu'tey's move. Unlike Tsu'tey he didn't take aim, which was a pretty good indication to Tsu'tey that he hadn't actually spotted the movement ahead, but there was an arrow against the string and Tsu'tey suspected that given a target, Jake's arrow would be right behind his own.

"What?" Jake hissed. "Is the thanator back?"

Tsu'tey shook his head. Not that a palulukan hunting after dark wouldn't be perfectly normal—it was actually more common than a day hunt—but unless the young palulukan had changed his hunting strategy greatly in the last few hours, he would have come directly at them rather than lying in wait in front of them. That didn't rule out other predators, though, and he did not want to have to fight a nantang pack on top of everything else today.


	34. Improvements

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

"Speech" = English

/Speech/= Na'vi

* * *

It would be inappropriate for a clan leader to strangle _any_ of the clan's healers, never mind _three_ of the clan's healers. It would be doubly inappropriate in his case given that one of the healers in question was his mother. That didn't mean that Tsu'tey wasn't tempted, though, as she and the others fussed at him, fussed at his leg, fussed at the temporary crutch he was using….

He glanced over towards Jake and found Jake looking back in his direction, mouthing something that looked suspiciously like 'help,' and Tsu'tey bared his teeth in response. Jake only had to deal with Neytiri—a worried and possibly angry Neytiri, yes, but just Neytiri—while he had three healers in front of him. How was he supposed to help anyone? At this point, he was starting to wish that they _had_ been attacked by a nantang pack.

He'd already sent most of the hunters who'd been with the search party out in a spiral pattern to see if they could pick up the palulukan's trail and confirm that he was moving away from Hometree. The clan was already warned of his existence thanks to the tracks by the archery range that had sent them out looking for him and Jake in the first place, but knowing the direction in which the palulukan had his lair would be useful. And if they could find the actual lair so much the better, although—

He frowned as the possibility of a palulukan denning just outside their perimeter came to mind, and then he wished that he hadn't as the youngest of the healers began to worry that the new bandage was too tight. It took more control than it should have to _calmly_ insist that the wrap was fine and he'd simply been thinking of something else, especially since as soon as the words were out of his mouth his mother began to lecture him about getting injured further because of his lack of attention. He didn't think a mother scolding at a man presented the proper picture of an Olo'eyktan. It was certainly not something that was sung about in the teaching songs.

* * *

Tsu'tey glanced over at Jake, who was frowning slightly but seemed to be following along well enough. He hadn't interrupted for any translations, but then, Tsu'tey doubted that he would. At least not in current company. Tsu'tey's caution in sending out the hunters to locate the palulukan's den had been well-founded; it wasn't quite at the perimeter of Hometree but it was far too close for anyone's comfort. Especially given this palulukan's age and unpredictability. With an older one he would have been more confident in the likelihood of it taking its prey away from the Na'vi after a few failed attempts as he had described to Jake, but one so young might not be so easily dissuaded, and all it would take is one child of the clan in the wrong place at the wrong time to cause a tragedy. The clan did not need more loss right now.

Unfortunately, while he knew that it was _possible_ to relocate palulukan, or at least convince him to relocate, it hadn't been done by the Omaticaya in his lifetime. He'd asked a few of the elder clan members if they had any experience, and Tsa'dran had vaguely remembered the clan having to move one when he was a small child, but it had been before he'd even started to learn the teaching songs never mind been of age to assist. In fact, none of the clan members who'd been directly involved were still alive, but Tsu'tey had gathered all who were children at the time and they were doing their best to recall what they'd seen and heard. He and Jake were the only two younger clan members here now—the others were putting up the meat from the hunt, but the two of them had been banned from any physical activity by the healers for at least the next couple days which left them little to do but listen—but there would be a meeting of all of the hunters later to put together the best plan that they could. And regardless of his mother's opinion, he would be going along on this endeavor because it was not something that he could ask the hunters to do without the Olo'eyktan along.

Kalis finished recounting what he remembered of his father's description of smoking the palulukan out, and Jake met Tsu'tey's eyes and winced.

Tsu'tey nodded slightly. He agreed—he wasn't thrilled about the idea of setting a fire near a tree den after what had happened to Hometree either—but they might not have a choice. They had to find a way to make the palulukan's den uninhabitable enough that he had no desire to return.

Man'an began to speak next; unlike the others here he'd joined the Omaticaya after adulthood when he'd taken a mate among them at one of the Clan Gatherings, and his clan had once successfully moved a palulukan by closing off its den while it had been out hunting. Again he hadn't been personally involved, but it was obvious from the way he was describing the lair that that den had been a temporary home at best, so while Tsu'tey liked the idea better than burning him out, it might not be an option. A determined palulukan would be able to dig through almost anything a Na'vi could put in front of him with the possible exception of collapsing the den, and even then, if he was particularly attached to the location, he might dig a new den in the same location.

Man'an was speaking faster than Kalis had, his voice still carrying a slight accent from the clan of his birth, and Jake clearly wasn't following him as well as he had the others, but when Tsu'tey gave him a questioning look he shook his head. He was probably able to follow the basics if not all of the details then. Well, that or he'd be asking Tsu'tey for a lot of translations later. Unfortunately the older the clan member the less English they generally had, and while these discussions would be conducted in Na'vi anyway since the last thing Tsu'tey would want was for something to be missed because someone didn't know the right word, it did make it difficult for Jake to ask questions. It had occurred to Tsu'tey after Tsa'dran had begun to speak that he probably should have asked one of the other hunters to sit in as well, just to have a second set of ears that understood _everything_, but…well, Tsa'dran would join the hunters later if asked. In fact, it would probably be a good idea to run the final plan past him and a few of the other clan members as well. That would be enough.

There was no one to speak after Man'an, and Tsu'tey thanked everyone quickly and the group dispersed to their before-dinner tasks. Jake remained with him, though, and he flicked his ears in question. "Did you understand?"

"Most everything except the last. He doesn't sound quite like the rest of you, and he talks faster too. Different clan originally?"

"One of the grassland clans, yes." Tsu'tey couldn't remember which at the moment, which was to his shame and he would remember to ask Mo'at when he had the chance, but Jake probably wouldn't recognize it anyway.

"Ah. He was saying something about piling a bunch of rocks in front of the den, though, right? Call me crazy, but I like that idea way better than burning it out."

"As do I, but he was speaking of a temporary den. It may not work if the palulukan has chosen the tree that the hunters tracked him to as his permanent lair."

"Damn. Figures. Well, we can always try."

"And I think we will, unless someone has a particular reason that we shouldn't." If it wasn't a particularly large tree, taking it down was even a possibility, although he didn't actually like that idea much more than setting fire to it. But he needed to hear more details from the hunters who'd seen it firsthand to know if that was an option. "We will meet with the hunters tomorrow at midday to tell them what we learned."

Jake nodded, getting to his feet as Tsu'tey tucked his crutch under his arm. "Healers give you any more news on your leg?"

"They have said that our run didn't do more than strain the muscles." No bone damage, or at least no more than there already had been. "So unless anything else happens, they will remove the cast in a day or two." One if he had his way, two if his mother had hers…unfortunately, he already knew how that battle was going to end. "What about you?"

"Strains, overstressed muscles, better to build up to distance running, blah, blah, blah. I don't know, I stopped listening about five minutes in. I mean, I guess we could have asked the palulukan to walk slowly after us, but somehow I don't think that would have worked."

Tsu'tey grinned. "I do not think I would say that to them."

"Oh, trust me, no way I'm making that mistake. Tempting as it is."

"I have your things from the Sky People's place," Tsu'tey said as they approached Hometree. He'd realized it last night when he'd noticed that his carry pouch wasn't empty…there had been no reason to use it so it had been hanging by the hammock he'd claimed so Jake's things had been in there since their journey.

"My things? Oh, my tags and projector, right."

"Why do you keep them?" Tsu'tey asked curiously as he retrieved the items from his pack and handed them back to Jake. He hadn't thought to ask when Jake had first given them to him, his focus at the time had been on his injured friend, but…. "They are nothing here."

Jake's shoulder twitched. "Not to you maybe, but those pics and vids are all I've got from back home. That's what's left of Tommy and my parents and my friends. Well, I guess technically I got this from Tommy too," he gestured at his body, "but that's a little different."

Tsu'tey frowned and shook his head, and Jake looked away for a minute before meeting his gaze again.

"I'm never going back to Earth. We talked about that before, and no, it still doesn't bother me. But the people deserve better than being forgotten. I mean, if something happened to your mother, would you just erase her from your memory?"

"Of course not." Tsu'tey knew that his disgust was visible on his face, but it was for good reason: that was a horrible thing to suggest. It did not do to linger on thoughts of death, although grief was entirely understandable and no one would speak against it, but celebrating and remembering the _life_ of a clan member who had gone to Eywa was right.

"Well, I'm not just going to forget the people I loved either." Jake shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, I mean, I don't expect anyone _else_ to care, but…they were mine."

He was right. Tsu'tey would not have thought about it like that, although he probably should have given that he knew that the device contained images of Jake's brother, but no one had the right to expect Jake to forget his family.

"And these…." Jake put the projector in his pouch and then untangled the band of ugly jewelry quickly, holding it in his hand—it looked much smaller now than it had when he was in his Sky Person body although no more attractive—and a half-smile crossed his face. "I don't know. I guess I've just been wearing them for so many years that it'd feel wrong to be without them. To tell you the truth, I'm kind of surprised that I didn't notice that they were missing them before." He did something that made the band open and then slipped it around his neck and reattached it.

"I'm sure you could bargain with one of the artists for a nicer band, at least, if you insist on wearing it," Tsu'tey said with a shake of his head. Actually they'd almost certainly _give_ him something if he asked, if only so Toruk Makto didn't look foolish wandering around in something so unattractive. As it was, he was already wearing far less jewelry and ornamentation than anyone else in the clan short of a hunter about to leave on a hunt ever did. He had the right to more, given his rank, but he either didn't know that or didn't care. Knowing Jake and what he'd said before about wearing whatever Neytiri told him to and the lack of ornamentation on the Sky People's things, it was probably a combination of both.

Jake looked down, running a finger along the faded grey material. "What's wrong with it?"

Tsu'tey stared at him for a moment and then shook his head. Maybe it was just as well that Sky People didn't ornament things if their taste was that bad.

"What?"

* * *

/I See you, Tsu'tey,/ Neytiri greeted, looking up from her work as Tsu'tey approached.

/I See you, Neytiri,/ he returned.

/I believe Jake has gone to listen to the teaching songs with the children,/ she said.

Tsu'tey dipped his head slightly in acknowledgement of her words, but it wasn't Jake that he wished to speak to right now. He might, afterwards—or he might not; Jake was his friend but he was also Neytiri's mate—but it was time that he spoke to Neytiri. Past time, perhaps. /May I sit?/

/Of course./ Her hands stilled over the arrow she'd been fletching. /Is something wrong?/

/Not wrong, but…./ He shook his head. /Why did you do it?/ As soon as the words were out of his mouth that he hadn't phrased his question well…he'd seen her sitting alone in the clearing and had decided that now was as good a time as any for them to talk since he had nothing that needed his immediate attention, but that had been less than clear. He should have planned out what to say better. Or at least how to say it.

She frowned down at the arrow and her ears flicked against her skull as she looked back at him. /I don't understand./

/Why did you mate Jake?/ Which was clearer, at least, although still not well-phrased, but the question was out in the open now, and he waited for her response.

She looked away for a minute and then back at him. /Because it was right./

/And I wasn't? I will be a _good_ Olo'eyktan./ His voice was laced with hurt and he was sure that she could hear it, as much as he wished that he'd hidden it better, but he had done his best to learn from Eytukan and the idea that that could have been gone in an instant—

/No!/ She shook her head quickly. /No, it was not…./ Her ears flicked back again, and this time he recognized embarrassment. /It had nothing to do with the leadership. At the time, I didn't even think about that./

He tilted his head, but she continued speaking before he could ask.

/You are not wrong as Olo'eyktan—and you are _already_ a good leader—but you and I…./ She shook her head. /_We_ were wrong./ Her shoulders twitched. /You were my brother for so many years. You taught me to throw a bola, you rode beside me on my first hunt, you were there when I bonded with…./

She swallowed hard and looked away again, but this time it had nothing to do with him. And Tsu'tey did understand because if he had lost Denan like she had lost Seze, he would feel as much pain.

/I did not think when I should have,/ she said as she lifted her head again. /I realize that. Jake would not be as good a leader as you; I know this, and he knows this, and either of us will tell you this. And I should have considered that before I acted. The good of the clan… it should have come first. But he and I, we are _right_ together. We belong together./ Another twitch of her shoulders, this one accompanied by a vague wave of one hand. /I can feel it, but it is not something that I can explain it more clearly. And maybe I could have found another way, a better way, if there had been more time, but Mother and Father were already upset that I had postponed our mating so long and were starting to insist that it happen soon, and with him finally becoming a full member of the clan…./ She shook her head. /It just happened./

Tsu'tey was reasonably sure that things like that didn't just happen, but then, he wasn't mated so he couldn't exactly claim to be an expert on the subject, either.

/It has nothing to do with your leadership,/ she added, repeating what she'd said earlier, /but I just couldn't mate you./

/I would prefer not to be mated to a sibling as well,/ he said after a moment. /And you are as close to a sister as I have ever had. But it does not make the situation easier./

/No,/ she agreed. /I wish it were otherwise, but…./

Tsu'tey shook his head. What was done was done. /I will teach him as best I can before the challenge./ If Jake did win, he would have to be Olo'eyktan, no matter what anyone thought.

/I know you will. You are better than I am at always considering the good of the clan first./ She paused. /For what it is worth, though I should not say this, Mother agrees with the three of us. Jake would be a good second for you if you chose it, but he does not have the knowledge necessary for leadership./

One of three was something, anyway, Tsu'tey knew, and as the Tsahik of the clan in question Mo'at's words would carry weight with the two Olo'eyktans who would also be involved in the decision. Although he did understand why she couldn't possibly say something of the sort directly to him so rather than acknowledging Neytiri's words verbally he settled for a twitch of his ears.

/Are you the one who told Jake that he should get a new chain for his pendant?/ she asked after a minute.

It was a deliberate change of subject, but there was little more to say about what they'd been discussing previously so Tsu'tey simply nodded. Things were still not calm between the two of them, but he would admit that a good deal of the hurt he'd felt had gone with her words. At the fact that she _hadn't_ been thinking that the clan needed a better Olo'eyktan than him when she had chosen Jake. And, truth be told, he would not mind if they returned to their previous sibling status. Maybe it wouldn't happen immediately, but…. /He calls them 'tags,'/ he offered.

/They're hideous./

/I noticed. _Did_ he at least replace the chain?/

/With a string of beads the children made./ She shook her head. /I think he helped them. It is very little improvement./


	35. The Plan

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. __Real life has been evil and I haven't had time to get much writing done lately, but hope you enjoy._

* * *

Denan shrieked and banked, and Tsu'tey bared his teeth and shifted with her reveling in the feeling of _finally_ flying normally again. Oh, his grip with his injured leg wasn't anywhere near as strong as it should be, but that would improve in time, and at least now he could hold the proper position.

A steep dive put them down among the tree trunks, and he felt his grin grow as she spiraled among them, coming within armlengths of trunks and branches. He had missed this. He was sure that his mother had known exactly where he was going when he'd left the healers' fire without a crutch—had known and disapproved—but she hadn't actually forbidden it, which he appreciated. Although he probably would have done it anyway, and she was his mother and knew him as well as anyone, so….

A shadow overhead made both he and Denan check cover automatically, but the surge of annoyance Tsu'tey felt through the bond was enough to identify the cause even before he recognized the red form. The fact that his ikran's opinion of Toruk was annoyance rather than any kind of fear generated some worry in Tsu'tey, but he was reasonably certain that Toruk—Jake's Toruk, anyway—wouldn't eat her, and it wasn't as though there was another Toruk in the area. With a thought, he sent Denan streaking up out of the canopy and past Toruk's shoulder, and he was certain that he caught a startled look from Jake even if he knew that Jake would never admit it.

Denan leveled off above Toruk, and Tsu'tey wasn't surprised when a snap of Toruk's wings brought him up underneath her to within easy shouting distance. "Hey, Tsu'tey, a little birdie said you were finally up and about for real!" Jake yelled.

Tsu'tey debated for a moment asking what a 'birdie' was and then decided that it didn't matter in the least and flashed the handsign that meant assent. Which Jake should—and apparently did—recognize from their pre-battle discussions before battle because he bared his teeth in a grin.

Another ikran passed them and banked, coming to glide above Toruk's other shoulder, and Tsu'tey recognized Banshee. Ikran didn't have expressions in the same sense that Na'vi did, but they did have flight posture, and by the look of his, Banshee was at least as annoyed at Toruk as Denan. Probably more so since his rider was on Toruk's back instead of his.

Jake apparently recognized that as well because he shook his head. "I was just up with you!"

Banshee shrieked his displeasure and traded speed for altitude, falling back behind them, and Jake shook his head again and said something to Toruk, patting his neck. "We're going down," he called up to Tsu'tey.

Tsu'tey had planned on staying up longer, but stressing his leg would probably not be the best thing to do his first day free of the healers, and he did have responsibilities back at Hometree. Denan wasn't happy with the thought, but when he insisted she matched Toruk's pace back to the lakebed.

"So how is your leg feeling?" Jake asked as he broke Tsaheylu and leapt off Toruk's back.

"Better. Still weak, but it carries my weight more easily, now." He broke Tsaheylu with Denan after a promise to return again as soon as he could. "She does not like him."

"She doesn't like anybody. Is there a 'world's most antisocial ikran' contest?"

Tsu'tey frowned, and Jake waved it off.

"Never mind. And if it makes you feel any better, you can tell her that he probably won't be around to irritate her for much longer. Or at least he won't be in the immediate area, anyway."

"Why not?" Tsu'tey asked as the two of them turned down the path towards Hometree.

"Apparently it's almost mating season and there aren't any mates around here." He shook his head. "Something about food and territory, I think. I didn't really understand a lot of it."

Tsu'tey nodded slightly. "Toruk requires a large territory to feed himself, as do all of his kind. Between mating and the time the young can survive alone is the only time in which they will share territory, and to find an acceptable mate they must often fly far." A Toruk's territory was _very_ large, in fact—probably why Eywa had not been able to send any others to their aid in the battle against the Sky People—and he had no idea if there was a female Toruk that had territory bordering this one that would shorten that distance even slightly.

"Huh. Guess that makes sense. Anyway, he prefers the floating mountains to this down-on-the-ground stuff too, so I'm guessing he'll go back there afterwards. He stuck around after the battle since he was worried about me, but since I'm here and awake and obviously okay…." Jake shrugged. "I figure I'll be able to find him if I need him, but I doubt he'll stay with us again."

Tsu'tey nodded. While the songs talked of Toruk Makto in battle, there was rarely mention of the Toruk's actions afterwards, and a Toruk was not an ikran. It made sense that he would eventually want to return to his own nesting place. He didn't doubt that Jake _would_ find him again if he needed to, but there was no need for his permanent presence. And Denan and Banshee probably weren't the only ikran who would be pleased to see him go.

"Hey, at least this way I won't forget and accidentally ask him to eat Denan before the challenge," Jake said with a grin. "Not that it would be much of a loss from my perspective since I'm still pretty sure she's plotting ways to make _me_ supper, but…."

Tsu'tey hissed at him, but Jake's grin only widened in response. "So what's the latest word from the scouts watching the thanator?"

"Kel'tsi returned just before I went to see the healers and reported that he is beginning to get restless again," Tsu'tey said. "Tonight or tomorrow he will hunt again."

"I guess even a thanator—palulukan—can't live off one angtsik forever."

"Yes, and he's been quiet for longer than I expected," Tsu'tey said. "But then, he is not quite full grown yet." The palulukan had taken an older angtsik the day after his attempt on Jake and Tsu'tey, and since no fully-fed palulukan would leave his den willingly, Tsu'tey had taken the extra time to consult in detail with the hunters and make the plan as solid as possible. It was still not a guarantee that it would work, of course, few things in life came with such, but he'd been glad of the time.

"I guess we could dump a couple of the yerik carcasses we've got on him and hope that shuts him up for a little longer," Jake suggested.

"Feeding him would encourage him to stay in the area," Tsu'tey said with a shake of his head. "We want to make him leave. We will act when we can."

"Hm. Good point. So as last I heard we're waiting until he goes out hunting and then filling the den with bad smelling stuff and piling rocks up in front and hoping it takes? And the scouts will try and make sure that he doesn't get anything big for dinner?"

"Yes. Tosna and Kayin are watching him now; one will follow and the other will report if he leaves before nightfall. If he does not, Eykir and another scout will take their place at full dark." The second part of the plan, the attempt to keep him from making another large kill, was risky since there was the possibility that he would double back to Hometree again in the hopes of finding prey, but if he was fully sated there was the danger that he would accept even an inferior den to sleep off the meal. Ideally he would take a yerik or something small, return to his den and find it uninhabitable, and begin the move away from the area with enough food in his stomach to keep him moving but not so much that he required sleep.

Jake nodded. "Are you planning on going along?"

"Now that I can help transport materials, yes." As much as he wanted to, he didn't trust his speed on the ground yet, but at least he could now contribute something to the effort. Even if Denan would not be pleased to help carry the foul-smelling material they'd been collecting for the past several days. "Are you strong enough to help with the rocks?"

Jake rocked a hand, and his expression wasn't entirely pleased when he answered. "Small to medium rocks, maybe. I'm still not back to where I should be." He tilted his head, and his lips twitched. "Of course, now that you're officially okay I guess I've got more incentive since we still need to settle the question of who will win in combat. Don't worry, I'll try not to break your leg again."

"_I _am not the one who should be worried."

* * *

Denan remained silent as she swept upwards after delivering their burden, but he could sense her relief that it was gone. Of course, he shared that relief…an ikran's sense of smell wasn't nearly as acute as a Na'vi's, and even moving into the wind it hadn't been a particularly pleasant flight out. The rotting remains were delivered now, though, and from this point on he would be acting as eyes above—with the light wind keeping his nose free of the foulness—while Jake and the others filled the den. He couldn't say that he liked it, he was the clan leader and should be working amidst the others regardless of discomfort, but at least he had been able to contribute something.

Those on the ground were only marginally visible; the mouth of the den obscuring the bioluminescence around them, but he could still make out general forms passing burdens along. It would take them some time to fill the entrance, but they all knew they had to work as quickly as they could.

It felt like a great deal of time had passed, although he knew that it hadn't, when he heard a faint whistle on the wind. That was the signal that the palulukan was returning, and he could only hope that the scouts tracking him had been successful. He relayed the whistle quickly to those below and the rustling of work suddenly became much louder for a few moments before other ikrans began to join him and Denan in the air.

"Damn it, we needed another half an hour at least," Jake muttered as Banshee came on level with Denan.

"It cannot be helped."

Eykir winged in from the darkness a moment later, Atta following on his ikran's tail, and Tsu'tey nodded in greeting. /Did he eat?/

/Three yerik, two adult and one young./

Tsu'tey frowned. It was not a full meal, but it was more than he would have liked, especially for a palulukan the size of this one.

/He took the first adult and its cub in his initial attack, the other fell and was too badly injured in the stampede to run again,/ Eykir continued. /There was no way for us to reach it before he did./

Tsu'tey nodded in understanding. Even attempting to take a palulukan's prey under those circumstances would have been foolish in the extreme. /He is still moving easily?/

/Not so quickly as when he left hunting, but he didn't gorge./

It would have to be enough. Tsu'tey signaled those ikran makto carrying bows around. Palulukan were not hunted by anything and rarely paid attention to what was above them, but they'd discussed striking him with arrows in a further attempt to dissuade him from entering the den and he wanted the archers in the best positions possible. The last thing he wanted was for the the palulukan to be driven _into_ the den.

The palulukan was even harder to see in the dark than the other Na'vi had been, but Tsu'tey heard his disturbed rumble as he approached the den and then pulled away again. The action was repeated several times and then the palulukan yowled fiercely, and Tsu'tey signaled for first wave of archers to take aim. Now would be the point where it would either force its way in or turn and go.

Another yowl, and then there was a thump as it spun and leapt back in the direction in which it had been hunting, and Tsu'tey felt himself relax slightly even as he turned to the two ikran makto beside him. /Follow him,/ he orderered Kel'tsi and Yatan even as he signaled the archers to lower their bows. /If he circles back towards Hometree, one of you stay with him and the other fly ahead and alert us. If he continues beyond the territory we discussed, follow him until sunrise and then return, otherwise mark where he dens first./ The palulukan would almost certainly den _somewhere_ come daylight; hopefully it would be beyond the point where he was a danger to the clan.

They both nodded sharply and their ikran banked as one, and Tsu'tey signaled Denan higher so he had the full attention of the others. /We will return to Hometree and sleep in shifts until it is sure that he will not come through in the night. If we were successful, we'll know tomorrow, otherwise we will need to plan our next action./ He probably hadn't needed to give those orders since they had been discussed that part of the plan in advance as well, but none of the others commented on that as they turned their ikran homeward .

"Well, so far so good," Jake said as Banshee came back alongside Denan on the flight back. "Although, you know that if it worked, you're going to have to give another speech."


	36. Moving On

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed._

"English."  
/Na'vi./

* * *

"Are you planning to sleep at all tonight?" Jake asked.

His arrival hadn't exactly been quiet—Tsu'tey was in the upper branches of the canopy, and Jake was not a quiet climber—and Tsu'tey bared his teeth. He knew that the expression was perfectly visible even in the low light, and it expressed how he felt more clearly than anything else right now. "Isn't Neytiri waiting for you?"

Jake snorted. "Distraction, very nice." He dropped down beside Tsu'tey showing no evidence that he was planning to take the hint. "You do know that you sitting up waiting for them isn't going to change what the thantor does right? Or what time they're going to get back?"

"Palulukan. Of course." He wasn't an idiot. "Why _are_ you here?"

"Oh, I don't know. It seemed like a good opportunity to irritate you."

Tsu'tey hissed. Jake probably did consider that a good reason to bother him in the middle of the night.

"Also to tell you that you can't do everything. I saw the look on your face when we landed."

Tsu'tey turned his attention pointedly back to the sky.

"One thing you pick up real quick in the Marines," Jake continued after a moment. "You should get your rest when you can. If trouble does come, you'll hear about it soon enough." A shake of his head. "Somehow trouble is never quiet. Except palulukans, I guess."

He was right. Tsu'tey knew that he was right. He hissed again anyway.

"All right, all right, I'm going." Jake held up his hands. "Since you're right, and Neytiri probably is waiting. I'll see you in the morning, when everything will be fine. Or not." He grinned. "Like I said, there is that speech you have to give."

"My cast is off," Tsu'tey pointed out. "Soon we will have a fight, and I will enjoy beating you."

"In your dreams." It seemed that Jake had said all he'd came to say, though, because with another quick smile he turned and started the climb down out of the canopy. He wasn't as quiet about it as a Na'vi would have been, maybe, but much more gracefully than he'd been moving before, and Tsu'tey nodded to himself. Very soon. And brother or not, he had been serious about the fact he'd enjoy it.

Silence finally fell again as Jake reached the wider branches that didn't move with his weight, and Tsu'tey returned his gaze to the sky in truth. He would never admit it out loud, but Jake was right. It felt like he should be out there. When Eytukan had been alive, his place would have been in the air with Denan following the Palulukan out, and it still seemed that at the very least he should have placed himself on the roster to relieve Kel'tsi and Yatan at daybreak. The fact was that it was no longer his place, but he was so accustomed to the one being out that it felt wrong. More so even than the hunts that had occurred without his participation…at least then he had been truly injured and unable to go. Of course, his mother would argue that his leg was still too weak for sustained flight without the cast, but then she was a healer. It was in her nature to fuss about such things.

He shook his head. As much as he knew that Jake was right about his need to sleep as well, that was certainly not going to happen until the others returned to report that the palulukan was safely out of the clan's territory. So for lack of anything else to do he began to consider that speech. It seemed like it should be simple, really. Congratulations and thanks. Nothing he hadn't heard from Eytukan a thousand times. But somehow when it came to _him_ saying the words...even just speaking them to himself they came out as stilted as his first speech to the clan had been. He appreciated Tsa'dran's reassurance that Eytukan had once needed to practice as well, but that was less comfort now, in the middle of the night, than it had been that afternoon in the sun. Especially since he could hardly wake Tsa'dran and ask for more advice.

* * *

/Prey…prey…./ Jake shook his head. "Gah! It's the little white ones with the blue spots!"

/Preiss, yes. But they're large and yellow with red stripes./

Jake groaned, and Tsu'tey grinned. "I do not think I will need to fight you. You will poison yourself with your food long before the challenge."

"You're not funny."

"I find it funny." Jake rolled his eyes, and Tsu'tey's grin widened. /Preiss. Repeat./

/Preyss./

It was about as close as Jake ever got, and Tsu'tey nodded. /The little white ones with the blue spots are prauiss./

"That's cheating," Jake muttered. /Prayss./

/Prauiss./

/Prawss./ Jake glanced around and then tilted his head. "Do you think we've sat here quietly long enough to fool the healers?" Jake asked.

"Fool them?"

"You know, trick them?"

"Into what?"

Jake grinned. "Into thinking we're being good. My mind might be crap for plants, but I know there's a clearing not too far from here, and I really need to hit something. Someone. And you're nice and convenient. Come on, we're both healing up pretty good…they've all admitted it, even if they don't like it."

Tsu'tey considered. Clan leader and Toruk Makto or not, they would be in trouble if they got caught. His mother did agree that his leg was regaining strength more quickly than she'd expected, but she'd also been voicing less than subtle concerns about the amount of stress he'd been putting on it flying with Denan in the last few days. In fact the flight he'd just returned from had gotten him the 'suggestion' that he sit and rest until the evening meal. And he'd heard Jake complaining to Norm over the radio that the healers here were fussing at him even more here than they had been back on the base as well. Not that Norm had been sympathetic, and Max's muttered comments in the background had made Tsu'tey laugh and Jake threaten all of them.

"Come on," Jake urged. "Nothing full force, we probably _aren't_ up for that just yet, but it's got to be better than sitting here. I mean, do you really want to keep listening to me get things wrong? Even Ninat and the children get sick of it after a while."

"I think it's funny when you get things wrong."

"Of course you do. Just don't expect me to stop harassing you about your speeches either."

"I am improving." Well, the last one had been better mostly because Tsa'dran was an early riser who'd been willing to help him reword things before the meal, but he was hardly going to admit that.

Jake made a face but didn't dispute his words, and then he nodded in the direction of the clearing. "So? What do you think?"

Tsu'tey considered. They shouldn't. They really shouldn't. They were both adults, after all, and should behave as fit their titles and positions within the clan. After all, they weren't back at the Sky People's place any more. But he already knew that he'd run out of patience with Jake soon no matter how he tried to find amusement in the situation…he was excellent at demonstrating things, but the sort of rote teaching that Jake needed was not among his stronger talents. And his mother had said something about wanting to speak to Mo'at about some of the herbs they'd lost at Hometree that the healers needed to lay in a new store of, or more specifically the ceremony required to bless them, and if his mother and Mo'at started talking, he and Jake should have plenty of time. Besides, it wasn't like they would be doing it in front of anyone else in the clan, which meant that they could hardly be accused of setting a poor example. He bared his teeth, and Jake's grin widened in return.

"Let's get going, then."

Tsu'tey checked the clearing automatically for any large sticks or particularly sharp rocks when they arrived and then mimicked Jake and began to stretch. His leg did feel a little stiff, but nothing he hadn't dealt with before, and this was hardly going to be a fight for his life.

"Ready?" Jake asked, taking a few steps back.

Tsu'tey tilted his head and then drew his knife and tossed it aside. "Just in case I forget."

"Oh, that makes me feel good." Still, Jake pulled his knife free of its sheath and tossed to the side as well. "_Now_, are you ready?"

/Ready./ Tsu'tey didn't recognize Jake's stance, but then, Jake had learned to fight as a Sky Person so there was no reason that he should. It was similar to the stance he'd taken when Tsu'tey had attacked him before, Tsu'tey recognized, far more upright than any Na'vi would fight. Although his weight was properly on the balls of his feet, and he was faster than he looked. Tsu'tey remembered that from before. Tsu'tey still didn't think that Jake was as fast as he was, though, and that strange stance had to be setting him off balance at least a _little_. Jake might have learned to fight as a Sky Person, but he was in a Dreamwalker body now.

"Are you attacking or am I?" Jake asked with a grin. "Come on, I kicked your tail last time. You can take the first shot."

Him attacking first was _how_ Jake had sent him sprawling the last time, as Tsu'tey recalled, but that night he'd been fighting more off anger than thought. He would not make that mistake again.

Jake apparently got tired of waiting for him to make the first move and darted in to slap Tsu'tey's arm. On his weaker side, unfortunately, so he couldn't retaliate with the kick he wanted to, but he did make a swipe at Jake's head. And then grunted as he hit the ground when a sweeping kick he hadn't even seen coming took out his stronger leg at the knee.

"Come on, brother, got to be quicker than that," Jake said as he darted out of range of retaliation.

Tsu'tey feinted again, enough to force Jake on the defensive, and then turned it into a real strike that should have sent Jake over backwards. Unfortunately Jake just planted a hand on his chest and threw him up over his shoulder. Right. Jake might not be back to full strength, but his Dreamwalker body had heavier muscle through the upper body than a Na'vi body did.

"Two for me," Jake said with a grin as Tsu'tey landed on his back and struggled for a moment to regain his breath.

Tsu'tey hissed and pulled himself around and upright again. And then pulled himself to his feet and tried to pretend that he and Jake had just been taking a walk and he'd happen to fall. Or something. /Sa'nok./

"Oh, hell," Jake muttered. "The universe hates me."

/Was there something unclear about _rest_?/ his mother asked. /To either of you? I believe Danah repeated this in the Sky People's tongue when she learned of the extra stress you'd been putting on your shoulder?/

That was directed at Jake who winced. And once again proved that he understood a lot more than he could say. "Yes, ma'am."

/Mo'at wishes to speak to you,/ she said, her attention still on Jake. /Neytiri told her that Toruk plans to leave when the moons change and she would like to hold the ceremony to bless the herbs before then if he will fly over to lend them strength./

"Yes, ma'am," Jake repeated. "I'll go talk to her about that now. Uh…." He shook his head. /I go talk her now./ "See you at dinner."

The last was directed at Tsu'tey, who muttered /Talk _to_ her now/ under his breath automatically, but it wasn't until Jake turned to go that Tsu'tey realized that he was being left alone with his mother. He fought down the urge to hurry after Jake under some pretense or another. It just wasn't fair that Jake got to escape the lecture that he knew was coming. He used retrieving his and Jake's knives to give him a momentary respite, but…well, momentary was a very good word for it.


End file.
